THE INSPECTOR OF NUISANCES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 741, 14 May 1886, Page 29

THE INSPECTOR OF NUISANCES.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL Sir,— From my experience in former days as a member of the City Council I know Mr Johnson, the Inspector of Nuisances, to be a most zealous and efficient officer, but since he has been performing the duties of Relieving Officer as well, his time is so much occupied with office work and duties in connection therewith, that it has been quite impossible for him to devote sufficient time to the sanitary affairs of the city; and I regret in his report to see that by stating “ that the Kent-terrace, College street, and Lorne-street Valley is (or was), and unfathomable swamp, and calculated to breed fever by • being built upon.” He has created an uneasy feeling and considerable alarm to a large population residing in the district referred to, and without any adequate cause, the fact being that the whole bed of the district consists of clean gravel, overlying clay at a considerable depth. By digging from Sin to 18in this will be found to be the case. All the officers of the Council can corroborate this, by noticing the character of the soil when Lorne-street and College-street have been opened for laying drains or waterpipes. The ground is now open in Kentterrace, where trees have been removed, and affords at the present time clear proof that there is no ground for defining the district as a swamp. There is a thin stratum of peaty soil overlying the gravel, and in days before the district was built upon used to retain the water on the surface, but so soon as this thin layer of peat is cnt through the water readily drains away. Beyond the fact that the district lies at a low level, and is subject to mists and fogs in the winter, causing colds apd catarrh, there is no reason why the district referred to should not be as healthy as any other part of the city. It is, however, occupied in patches by blocks of small dwellings, the tenants of which are somewhat migratory, and therefore requires attention from the Inspector to see that nuisances are not created by careless residents.—l am, &e.,

3. R. George.