N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 915, 13 September 1889, Page 16

N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.

The Wellington Corpo ration Empowering Actpassed its final stages

necessary LEGISLATION.

in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, and will be a law oT the land as soon as the Royal assent is given, about which there is not a shadow of doubt. We have again and again urged the passing of t.his Act, and we most heartily congratulate the city upon the Parliamentary sanction accorded it. It is important that every citizen should understand its object and tenour

Clause 1 is titular. Clause 2 provide-, for g reduction in the price of water supplied hy the Corporation to the General Government fco 8d per 10,00 gallons for ten years from the oomjng into force of this Act,

Clause 3 authorises the Council to supply J. Kitchen and Sons, of the Apollo Company, with water at the rate of 4d per 1000 gallons to the extent of an average of 12,000 gallons a day for a term of five years, in consideration of the Apollo Company permitting the Council to divert for drainage purposes the waters of a steam flowing through the Company’s premises at Newtown.

Clause 4 authorises the to, without taking a poll of the citizens, raise a special loan of L 7500 for the purpose of providing an additional cemetery or cemeteries for the city, and for any other purposes incidental thereto contemplated by the Cemeteries Act, 1882. Clause 5 makes it lawful for the said Council to select . cemetery sites within the limits of any borough or boroughs in the vicinity of the City of Wellington provided ihe council of such borough or boroughs shall first consent thereto by special order., i, Clause 6 fixes the. width of private streets in Wellington at 40ft. ( , ; The above l is the substance of the Act, and it thoroughly compasses the objects for lybich it was drafted. If thdre is aoy uncertainty about it, it is in that part which relates to the acquiring of land in adjacent boroughs for cemetery purposes. Rut this point w-as, we are glad to say, made clear at the inception of the Bill. An understanding has been come to with adjacent boroughs, whereby the latter tacitly agree not to obstruct the acquisition of land that is likely tobeoffered for cemetery purposes. Thus the Council is really in a position‘to, at once, set about that Cemetery reform so urgently required in this city. 1 And- no time should be lost. It is important ‘that the steps that‘have be tin recently taken extend ‘'the burying limits of t the cemetery in use should be slaved interments strictly confinefl to tho area already in pse. We hope this will not be lost sight of. We are glad to say that the Public Health Act Amendment Bill has been introduced in the Upper House and there passed through all the stages without amendment, and was sent to the Lower Chamber on Wednesday to be affirmed, This is the B’ll tbe passing

of which wo have so strenuously advocated in the best interests of tbe city in a sanitary sense.

Ifc provides that local, boards of health may regulate the condition of dairies and the supply of milk, the powers of the board in this respect •being extended to districts front which milk is supplied to the district immediately under its control. The board may also impose annual license, fees on dairymen and milkmen, and make regulations punishing any _ unlicensed person supplying millc, and providing “ for the destruction of any cattle in or about such daffy as aforesaid which _ may be _so diseased as to render their destruction desirable in the interests of public health. ’’ Provision is made for the inspection, licensing and registration of slaughterhouses which supp'y meat to the board districts, also “for the proper, efficient, and sanitary construction, lighting, ventilation, effansiug. drainage, water-supply, maintenance, and good management of such slaughterhouses as aforesaid, and of all lands, yards, buildings, erections, fixtures, appliances, instruments, utensils,, and things connected or used therewith or connected with the management thereof; and for preventing-and prohibiting the supply from such slaughterhouses to the. inhabitants oE the Board’s district of meat which, in the opiniou of tlie Inspector, is diseased or unfit for human consumption ; and providing for the destruction and removal of any animal suffering from disease so as, in the opinion of the Inspector, to be unfit for human food ” Another clause gives the Board power to make by-laws regulating the siz*, materials, main! enance, &e., of drains an I waterclosets, ami for the -inspection thereof. The maximum penalty for breaches of the Act it L2O.

The immense importance of this IMI to the City of, Wellington,’the Civv Council of which is a board of health, is sufficiently apparent. The Upper House has treated municipalities well and liberally in passing the measure intact, and we. hope the re: presentative chamber will, when the Bill cornea before it, be no less considerate and convert it into good law without delay. For it is a measure that will prove an unmixed blessing to all large aggregations of people, and will tend to establish sound sanitary conditions in all the towns of the Colony.