BLISSFUL BLENHIEM!

NZ Truth, Issue 119, 28 September 1907, Page 4

BLISSFUL BLENHIEM!

Blenheim seems to be a blissful sort of little village to live and die m. Perhaps it is that Blenheim does not want to be any better than it is. At anyrate, it cannot be much worse. Blenheim , of course, has got a Borough Council, and whatever usefulness it serves is really hard to say. Whatever it has done, it has yet to frame sanitary regulations that will just about bring the town into line with most towns m Jvew Zealand, but nobody troubles much about anything m Blenheim, and if at any time any virulent epidemic, such as typhoid fever or some other deadly scourge, should sweep over the town, the blind, or sleepy, people of Blenheim might realise the fact that if the Council had formulated sanitary regulations and made fit and proper arrangements for the disposal of night soil, lots of things would not have happened. As it is now, Blenheim can be properly described as the most insanitary town m the Dominion, and it might be just as well if the Health Department hearkened unto what "Truth" is saying on the strength of complaints made by residents and visitors to the town. There are no proper arrangements made for the removal of night-soil, and the inhabitants have accordingly to shift for themselves, and the shifts they resort to is to bury the "night-soil anywhere. What makes the matter till the more nauseating is tha-t the inhabitants, or, to be more particular, a great many of them, bury it. at no great depth, and the unpleasant experience of a recent resident of tho town was, while digging at a depth no greater than 15 inches, to unearth the unsavory and nauseating matter. It seems to be the custom m this vile village for everybody or nearly everybody to convert their backyards into a sort of noisome pit, and the authorities there don't, seem to mind it m the least. In fact, they seem helpless and do not knew how to proceed about drawing up bylaws. "Truth" therefore thinks the Health Department should have a. say m this matter, and if the locnl authorities cannot sec their way clear to deal with the problem, if it is a problem, then the Health Board should force their hands and inulfe them do something. Some towns m the Dominion are municipal modclM, but Blenheim seems to be a relic of a barbarous age, and it should be made to conform to the decencies of civilised life.