The Star. MONDAY, AUGUST 7,1876.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2611, 7 August 1876, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1876.

Amon&st the papers laid before the Assembly are a number of reports from the several Boards of Health, made •under the 15fch Section of the Public Health Act, 1872. The first thing which must strike the reader of these documents, is the very scanty nature of the information afforded. "With scarcely an exception they treat the very important subjf ?t with which they purport to deal in a superficial offhand eorfc of manner, seldom condescending to detail, and in some cases, as in the reports relating to Hawke's Bay, Nelson, and Marlborougb, omitting to mention anything beyond the mere fact that the Boards have done nothing whatever to enforce the provisions of the Act. The reports from Auckland are the fullest, but even these deal too much in generalities to be of any great practical value. Thus the medical officer states that " the generally good health of the inhabitants of the province duiing ths past year may be attributed rather to. the climate than to any other circumstance," which is, we take it, a polity way of saying tbat sanitary precautiona, afea&a rule 1 , 1 greatly neglcatod. Alii the reports, which are worthy of that name, complain of the insufficiency of the Act. The Auckland Healtp Officer says :-^" It haß not unfre.quently been found that the powers sj^nferred by $e £$fc a*e not sufficient;, o copo with various nuisances calling

for prompt and energetic measures." Mr Rolleston, as Chairman of the Canterbury Board, calls attention to the following resolution adopted at a meeting of that body ;— " The Board having heard read a letter from the Colonial Government, declining to sanction the expense of printing and circulating ' Precautions against the spread of Typhoid Fever,' is of opinion that the absence of funds to gpve effect to the Board's decisions, as Well as tho urgent want of definition of powers of the central and local authorities, render the Act leas useful than it might be, and recommends that the Government be moved to introduce an amended Bill in the next Session." This letter gives some details of the proceedings taken in dealing with ships which have been placed in quarantine, and concludes with the expression of opinion "that the attention to drainage, and other sanitary precautions consequent upon the constitution of a Drainage I Board having charge of the main drains and sewers in Cbristohureh and the neighbouring district, will be attended with great benefit to the maintenance of public health in this part of the Province." Reports from health officers and Local Boardß of Health in Canterbury there are none ; whatever effect therefore the Superintendent's letter may have in bringing about the amendment of the Act, it cannot be called a report in the ordijary sense of that word. Mr Macandrew also intimates indirectly that the fU'n^s pt the disposal of the Health ioafds in his Prbvinceare insufficient, and the Superintendent of Westland states that " the funds at the disposal ! of the Local Boards in Weßtland are barely sufficient to enable them to carry out the ordinary provisions of their Road Board duties, leaving nothing to meet any extraordinary expenditure for which occasion may arise, -while acting as Local Boards of Health." That any serious attention will be bestowed upon the amendment of the Act duiing the present session is, we fear, beyond expectatibn, but that it is totally inoperative in many districts, and very generally neglected in all is undeniable, although these facts are, of course, not actually stated in the reports. The people are not as a rule more alive to the neceisity of sanitary precautions in New Zealand than they are in other countries, nor is it likely that impecuniose Local Boards will take any vigorous action to compel attention to the Act, unless they are in turn compelled to do so by the Central, Boards. These may be said to have exhibited most lamentable carelessness, as it appears that in only two instances, namely Auckland and Westland, have they forwarded, for publication, reports from the Loml Boards in the irrespective districts. The inference clearly is that they were too indifferent to the matMr to take the trouble to call for such reports. Meanwhile, if there is a I deduction to be made from a general view of this extumely meagre State paper, it h that scarlet and typhoid evers, and diphtheria have Established themselves on a permanent footing in New Zealand, and that several cases of true typhus have occurred.