TYPHOID FEVER IN TIMARU.

Timaru Herald, Volume LX, Issue 2645, 7 March 1898, Page 3

TYPHOID FEVER IN TIMARU.

TO THE EDITOB OS" THE TIMARU HERALD Sir,— There is urgent necessity o something being immediately done t< protect the health of the inhabitants whc live here. The progress and well-doing of Timaru cannot be maintained if th< public health is neglected. I am m formed to-day that there have been n( less than thirty deaths registered m tht town within this last fortnight iron typhoid fever, and at the preseni moment the hospital authorities are a1 their wits' ends to know what to do tc meet the requirements of this feverstricken town. The Borough Council, whose duty it is, are doing nothing, shame on them. Let anyone walk along the principal streets m the town and be will ace fche channels simply stagnant because they are never cleaned, except by nature on the occasion of a heavy rain such as we had yesterday, lake from the Melville Hotel down, and you will see the channel full of filth and weeds. The Town Clerk passes this every day. With other matters pertaining to the public health (as with the drainage) the authorities seem entirely to disregard their duties. Only the other day the stench that was emanating from the rear of certain offices not a mile from the Bank of New Zealand was the subject of common talk, till at last the authorities had to send the Inspector of Nuisances to enquire into the nuisance, which wa« found to be a water closet that had not been emptied for two or three years. Whose fault was that? Not the tenant, who would n<Jt pay the small cost of a nightman, but the lax manner m whick supervision by the Borough Council is carried out. When one hears such hpartrending reports of the ravages of typhoia m this town it is a wonder public indignation does not rise up and demand an immediate remedy of such a state of affairs. / I am, etc., Guardian of Health. Timaru, 4th March, 1898.