VITALLY IMPORTANT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 27

VITALLY IMPORTANT.

The amendment of the Health Act, in which we hope to find ample power conferred upon municipalities to control the food supply of the people, is a long time coming to the front- Those who recognise the very grave necessity for the measure are naturally apprehensive about it, seeing that it was understood that the draft would be before Parliament last week. We' cannot obtain any explanation for the delay, but we have heard incidentally that country members have taken umbrage at the proposition, because it infringes tbe administrative privileges of County Councils and suburban municipalities —-it encroaches upon their limits ot jurisdiction.” If this is true another contest between country and town seems pending, and that io much to be deplored. Country this time is not aggressive, as it was during the representation question controversy, but is sullenly on the defensive, playing a sort of dog-in-the-manger part and has taken up a position that is not tenable it common sense and common, basine-s tests are applied to it. Por the cimntrv must understand that the aim of t ho'measure in contemplation is not to abstract one tittle from the political privileges of the country, bub

io bestow upon the towns power to avert insanitary consequences. If the country will undertake to do this, to see that all sources of food supply within the limits of its jurisdiction are unexceptionable in their general condition of sanitation, the towns will cheerfully abandon the attitude they have assumed in self-defence and trust implicitly in the country. But is it at all likely the country will <io any ouch thing unless it is compelled ? It sees with country aad not with town eyes ; its people are scattered about and less liable to be affected by insanitary conditions than the denizens of a comparatively crowded town. Infection and contagion are reduced, to a minimum in the open country, and increase to a maximum where population is dense. And, moreover, on the other hand the country immediately adjacent to towns is more or leas dependent upon the towns as markets for its produce. The fringe of country twenty miles round every large town is really suburban, is an appendage of the town ; and, in all matters where its action is likely to seriously affect the town, should be subservient to it. And such a position of subserviency is by 230 means degrading. It is merely the smaller submitting to the greater, the party who has to sell assenting to tbs stipulations of the party who desires to buy. The man with the money in his hand usually dictates the terms. And so we maintain that towns have every right to dictate to the country about them bow its institutions that supply the town shall be ordered and conducted, for the very life of the towns is at the mercy of dairy and slaughterhouse. This is a vital question that demands deep consideration on the part of country members before they definitely pronounce for or against it. Bor the concession demanded is by no means excessive—merely to be allowed the effective control of the sources of the food supply of aggregations of people, of say from five to fifty thousand. Thera are a variety of ways of disposing of a canine that is in the way, and if the country is obdurate in this matter that has been presented so moderately and fairly to it, the towns will have to act on the defensive. Already they possess the power to inspect, and, in some measure, to control dairies and slaughtering places, and we believe that if all such places were summoned to voluntarily place themselves under the jurisdiction of municipalities they would have no hesitation to do so if it could be shown it was worth while. And it would be worth their while if municipalities established a hall-mark of approval and affixed it to all municipal dairies and slaughterhouses, thus giving official sanction, under strict inspection, to their existence. Bor the dairy or slaughterhouse that conformed to the sanitary conditions imposed by . scientific and medical authority, would be sure of public confidence, and, other things being equal, would commandpublic custom. Central authorities acting in the interests of public health would be quite justified in warning the public not to deal with purveyors who had not official sanction. In other words, who, not having complied with sanitary conditions imposed, were unlicensed. This ought to excite healthy public discrimination that would ensure the bestowal of custom in the proper quarters, and those institutions which declined to recognise-.the central authority would stand out in the cold. We are aware there arc dairymen who are ready to place themselves under municipal control without legislative constraint, for they recognise the strength of the position they would then occupy. But, after all, legislative prescription is much to be preferred. .The colonial “hall - mark ” is better than that of localities, fur it ensures uniformity, and ihe authority is unassailable. ' Voluntary submission is an excellent thing if it, can be maintained, but compulsory by the people’s Parliament is belter, because it stands fast in inherent right. We hope country members will, in. this matter, heartily espouse the cause of the town?, and thus strengthen the country aa well, by promoting thoroughly amicable ‘ti.iid s-onnd business relations between the two.