THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1888.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8525, 3 November 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY).

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1888.

With which are incorporated the Wellinglut. Independent, established ISiS. and the Neu Zealander,

Admittedly Wellington has at the present time the best and most capable City Conncil that this municipality has possessed for years past. To say so implies no disparagement of the last Council. That contained some excellent members, two or three of the moat useful of whom are unfortunately absent from the Hew Council. That is no doubt a public loss, but it is to a large extent compensated by the return of several Councillors who, although fresh to civic politics, are certain to prove themselves most valuable representatives. Further, several of the best ex-conncillors have come back again, and—most beneficial reform of all—the worst have not come back. So on the whole the present Council is as good a one as the city could possibly expect, oris at all likely to get. Xhhs

state of things is particularly satisfactory to the citizens, inasmuch as so exceptionally able a Council may fairly be expected to set on foot various reforms, most ot which have long been greatly needed, and some of which are growing daily more and more urgent. We shall indicate these successively, taking one at a time. Among the most imperative are those which group themselves generally under the heading “ sanitary reform.” We do not know whether those who hold that the Inspector of Nuisances has not more work than he can doefficiently, really believe thatthe sanitary condition of the city is satisfactory. If they do, we can only say that we are unable either to agree with them or to understand the course of reasoning which has led to such a conclusion. It appears to us that the Eegistrar-Gcneral’s monthly vital statistics effectually dispel any such comfortable illusion. Why is the death-rate of this city so much higher month after month and year after year than that of any other New Zealand city? That it is so is a hard and unpalatable fact, which is blazoned forth to the whole Colony every month through the medium of the Gazette. Why should Wellington have so much larger a death-rate than Auckland, Christchurch, or Dunedin P It cannot be said that the situation is less healthy, or the climate less salubrious. Other things being equal, there is nothing in the site or climate of Wellington to account for a higher death-rate than obtains in other New Zealand cities. ;But it is idle and impossible to shut ouc eyes to the fact that every month the Eegistrar-General announces to the world at large that the number of deaths in every thousand of the population is appreciably greater here than in any other city of the Colony. Why is this ? There must be some special reason. The site of Christchurch, for instance, should, one would think, being on a dead flat, be more unhealthy than that of Wellington. Dunedin and Auckland are by no means more favourably situated than this city. Agcin, Wellington has neither the summer heat of Auckland and Christchurch nor the winter cold of Christchurch and Dunedin. The Wellington climate is, in fact, singularly equable in temperature, and iofh of the prevailing windo are genuine sea-breezes. Clearly, then, we cannot explain the excess in the local death-rate by attri buting it to what we may term “ natural causes,” Its only feasible explanation seems to be thatthe cause is a purely artificial and remediable one, and that while protean in its variety of shape, it is in plain terms simply defective sanitation. use what Mr W. S. Gilbert calls “ a respectful perversion ’’ of a well-known hymn, we may say that Wellington is a place

Where Nature's works are pleasing, And only man’s are vile. If Wellington is becoming unhealthy, it is because we, its citizens, have been steadily making it so through our persistent disregard year by year of the precautions which modern science prescribes as essential to urban salubrity. With no complete system of drainage, with an overcrowded cemetery in the midst of the population, with several very bad “ rookeries ” already existent, and an increasing tendency to their multiplication ; with numerous insanitary practices carried on unchecked, with the sewage of 30,000 persons all allowed to flow into a landlocked harbour, having a small rise of tide and a consequently sluggish current to carry it away from the foreshore ; with no efficient, plan of street-cleansing so as to get rid of a class of refuse which all the highest sanitary authorities agree in pronouncing one of the most deleterious of all nuisances—with these and other offences against sound sanitary rules in constant perpetration, is it wonderful that we have to pay the penalty which the laws of health prescribe and inflict for their infraction ? We shall deal with these matters in fuller detail another day, but we have at leastshownthat the new Council has an abundance of material in which to exercise its energy and unquestionable capacity. We give full credit to past councils tor what they have done. This city has now the enormous advantage of a splendid water supply, but for which it is quite certain that we should figure in the BegistrarGeneral’s returns much more unfavourably than we do. That is one great thing accomplished. Another is the introduction of the Destructor, by which a fertile ; source of danger to health will be minimised. But far more remains yet to be done, and we must look to the new Council to do it.