THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2165, 11 December 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1875.

Many of us have read of the ideas contained in Moore's " Utopia," and most of us have heard of, even if we have not read the facts which Plato considered would be necessary to form a model " Bepublic." The thoughts which filled the minds of the ancient and mediaeval writers are more or less impossible to reduce to practice, and except for the intriusic merits of the books as theoretical works, they are but of small practical utility. Following the example, however, of the eminent men who before him have written on ideal subjects, we have at the recent Social Science Congress at Brighton an address delivered by Dr Benjamin liichardson; which, even if impracticable to be carried out in its entirety, has at any rate many suggestions in it which may, and ought to be acted on for the benefit of all citizens. The sketch is entitled " A Model City of Health," and is the description of a city so built and constructed that the annual rate of mortality among its inhabitants is reduced to the lowest possible figure, something like 5 to the 1000, or even less. This model city then, which Dr Richardson calls " Hygeia" (the name, we may remind our readers, of the Grecian goddess of health) is to have a population of 300,000 living in 20,000 houses built on 4000 acres of lands, or an average of 5 houses and 25 people to the acre. The city is to contain three large or main streets running from east to west, parallel with each other, with, of course, other streets narrower though still wide, running in the same direction, intersected at right angles by streets running north and south. Beneath each of these main streets is to be a sub-street, a railway along which the heavy traffic of the city is conveyed, and to keep up the plan of having sub-ways, all the houses are bu;lt on arches, beneath which all the sewage of the city can pass, and which, by permitting a direct current of air to flow beneath as well as around and above the houses, renders the ventilation of the city in every way more perfect. As regards the interior economy of these houses the chief alterations which Dr Richardson suggests are that the T roofs should be almost flat, with an iron balustrade round them, so as to serve for miniature gardens, or, where necessity exists, for " drying grounds " for the laundry work of the family—this last suggestion seems rather to favor an utilitarian than a decorative spirit in the modeller —and the kitchens are situated immediately beneath the roofs, so that whatever there is of an unsavory odour, which the process of cooking sometimes engenders, is wafted upwards into the open atmosphere and does not offend the noses, or oppress the lungs of the inmates or their visitors. Of course each house is to be abundantly supplied with water, "cleanliness coming next to godliness " evidently in Dr Richardson's suggestions. A shaft open to the air above runs from the top of the house to the bottom, and a sliding door on each floor ©pens into the shaft, down which the dust, &c, is shot into the bin placed beneath. Other interior arrangements of the houses are to be carried on in a similar spirit, the great aim apparently being to have thorough and efficient ventilation— avoiding draughts—throughout the entire house ; and, to avoid the accumulation of any useless matter of any kind everything as soon as its use is over is conveyed away by means of the subways on which the houses are built. The number of cubic feet of air allowed to each sleeper is to be not less than 1200 feet, or a room about 12 leng, 10 wide, and 10 high—a striking contrast to an inn proposed to be erected at Puriri. Passing from the houses into the streets we find that these are to be composed of a wood pavement set in asphalt, as being " noiseless, cleanly, and durable." But it is not to the material of which the street is made only that the city owes its freedom from noise and consequent distraction, but as the heavy traffic of the city is carried on beneath the open thoroughfares the noise of beasts of burden is avoided, and as neither the " tobacconist's counter " or "dram shop " are to find a place within the model city's wall, "the streets of the city though sufficiently filled with busy people are comparatively silent." As regards the public arrangements to prevent the spread of malignant or contagious diseases, one idea is the institution of a public laundry under proper municipal inspection, where clothes which have been used by sick people, or on sick beds, are forbidden to be sent, and.hence much of the infection which is engendered in garments is checked. No one is obliged to send clothes to these public laundries, but if it be preferred may have them washed at home, but private laundries, free from inspection where any 'laundress may wash what and for whom she likes, are to.be entirely prohibited. The arrangements for the sick are to be most: complete; situated at equal distances from each other and constructed on the same plan are to be 20 hospitals, one to every 5000 of the inhabitants, and to make these the best of their kind no expense is to be spared. Nor is this all, but to check the great mortality so prevalent among infants, homes for little children are to be prepared, and in these homes mothers, whose time is occupied by their various callings, may leave their little ones secure in the knowledge that their children arc well and

judiciously cared for, and without tli© fear before their eyes that on their return they shall find one or more almost helpless infants scalded, burnt, or run over by a passing vehicle. The city is, of course, to be well supplied with public buildings, baths, play grounds, gymnasia, and libraries, and in every board school drill is to form an item in the programme of instruction. The water supply is to be from a river uncontaminated by sewage, whose waters well filtered are to be tested twice daily, while the sewage of the city, is to bo conveyed to model sewage farms at a distance, from the city, to be there utilized on well approved plans. As regards the important sanitary consideration of the burial of the dead, cremation is not to be employed, but a cemetery on a much modified form still to be retained.' This is to be artificially constructed of a fine carboniferous earth which rapidly causes the transmutation of dust iuto dust of the body placed within it, either in a wicker coffin or in a mere shroud. By means such as these described, though, of course, abounding in minutiao of details more or less complex in character, does Dv Richardson consider, with an experience of 30 years to aid him in his conclusion, that certain forms of disease would find no home in a city so constructed ; that infantile diseases such'as convulsions, diarrhoea, croup, &c, would be almost unknown; typhus and typhoid fevers and cholera could not exist except temporarily and by pure accident; small pox be kept entirely under control'; and all diseases due to alcohol be completely effaced. Some diseases would necessarily assert themselves, in Dr. Eichardson's opinion, especially scarlet fever, but the sanitary appliances of the city would do much to arrest their progress, and looking at all the circumstances of the case, and not making any unfair calculations, "Dr Eichardson considers that the average rate of mortality in a city so built would, for the first generation, at tbe maximum be only 8 to 1000, and in the succeeding generations as low as 5 to 1000! When we come to consider that the average number of deaths to a thousand calculated roughly by last month's return is about 30 to 1000 in Dunedin, 25 to 1000 in Auckland, and about 24 to 1000 in Christchurch, the difference between the real and ideal in the matter of mortality is fearfully apparent. All ideal schemes are of course visionary, but many have something practicable in them. So also this of Dr Eichardson, from which we have merely given rough jottings, may be found to have much in it of real practical advantage as well as of passing interest. Where improvements to reduce the death rate can be effected, they ought to be, and many of the details of the plan may be carried out in a simple and yet effective manner by any who take the trouble to - read them.