The Star. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1893. Sanitary.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4741, 5 September 1893, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1893. Sanitary.

There can be no doubt that we have passed through, if indeed we be through it, a sickly season. With measles ' and more serious ailments our doctors have, during the last few months, had a fairly busy time of it. There is, however, Borne doubt as to whether a proportion of the sickness which has prevailed may not have been due to preventable causes ; in other words, whether the sanitary condition of all parts of the city and. suburbs is always and altogether what it ought to be. An allegation that an unusually large proportion of the cases of infectious disease in the Hospital came from a certain locality waa made recently, and evoked an indignant denial from the local body interested. This is all very well, but we may be permitted to doubt whether every gutter, every bystreet, and every backyard in and around Chrisfcohurch is in the best possible state. People in the Colonies are apt to congratulate themselves on their freedom from the conditions which add such virulence to the ravages of disease in the Old World, without looking very closely to Bee whether their own conditions are all thai they ought to be. Summer is coming now, and the effect of insanitary surroundings will shortly be intensified by hot weather. To realise how fearful those effects may be we have only to look at the ravages of cholera in Russia and other European countries to-day. Our sanitary condition is, thank Heaven, not the least like that of Russia, but it is probably no better than, if as good as, that of moit parts of England, and we see that infectious diseases have raged in that country with dire results. Our people admit, readily enough, that the best barrier againßt the spread, and therefore against the introduction, of disease is cleanliness, in person, house and surroundings, but it is not certain that all of them diligently practise what they profess to approve. It is the duty of the local governing bodies to keep people up to the mark in this respect — in regard to the condition of their premises at all events ; and it is the part of every intelligent member of the community to insist that that duty is scrupulously performed. If people are careless in dealing with this important matter, they will, very probably, have reason to deeply regret their laxity.