The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 336, 28 August 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1868.

Past experience has taught us that it is a very hard matter to rouse the Westport public into anything like activity, but when the subject discussed becomes one actually of life or death, • '-ere may be a chance of at least attracting some attention to it. At the meeting held in reference to a municipality, Dr G-iles drew the attention of those present to the sanitary condition of Westport, in terms so strong that in any other place people would immediately have commenced to consider the

warning thus given, with a view to avert as far as possible the evils pointed out. The doctor told us plainly that great and immediate sanitary reform was needed, and added that the wet

season was fortunate for the community, for if we had the natural summer, diseases of different kinds must of necessity have arisen in our midst.

This warning be it remembered, did not come from a theorist or a quack, but from a highly educated and thoroughly competent medical man, who has not only undergone all necessary and prescribed training in his profession, but has been in actual practice for years, and has during his experience had ample means of forming opinions, that can be relied on. Such being the case, even if we had not the evidence

of our own senses to support the statement, it is surely our duty to take some measures in self protection. Although last summer may be said to have drop-

ped out of the calendar, inasmuch as the period that should have been warm and genial, was rough, wet,_ stormy, probable that another of a similar kind will follow in the coming months. Already in this, the very early spring, we have had glimpses ot fine weather, and it is likely this year that the approaching summer season will be just as hot as the last was cold and unseasonable. Though by no means believings implicitly in Maori predictions, whether as to weather, or anything else, there is no doubt that the natives on the coast said long before the summer months, that there would be no summer, in the usual sense, last year, and beyond question their prophecy was verified by the fact. If they are equally correct this time, a broiling season is to be looked for, and as this may not unreasonably be expected is would be surely be well if we were to

prepare for it, but how have we done so ? In the first place there are a very large number of persons residing in what is a actual swamp, and what is more a swamp most dangerous to health. Wallabi, Bright, and other streets are simply hotbeds of fever, and will produce in warm weather disease that must in many cases baffle the best doctor's skill. There is not a drain cut in one, and the surrounding mud is nothing more or less than decomposed vegetable matter, the accumulation left by the forest that .is

now cleared away. Every shower converts this into quagmire, every hot sun metamorphoses it into one vast vapour bath, and the reek can he

actually seen and smelt as it rises from the stagnant bogs. In wet and cold weather this is not felt, but let the sun peep out, and it is visible to the naked eye as well as palpable to the olfactory nerves. In these streets women and children live, and in them if nothing is done many women and children will die during the coming summer. There is no

drainage whatever, there is no probibility of a shower cleansing or possiing the locality, and yet money has been voted for the improvement of

streets, and prisoner labour might be made available for these purposes, in addition, instead of eternal wood cutting. We do not put it on the ground i of equity, though as all the Bection ; holders pay £5 per annum to the , Government, they have a right to ex- j pect that something should be done for them, but on the simple ground i of expediency. After the very 1 clearly expressed opinion of such [ an authority as the one above re- 1 ferred to, are the Government prepared i

lo accept the responsibility that at-J laches to them if death occur through their neglect ? We hardly think they will be, but at tbe same time they are, in- 1 all reason. That is one fruitful source of danger, but there are others in addition. "We yesterday published a letter from an old and respected resident here, in reference to pig keeping within a few feet of bis own premises, and he very reasonably asked if there was any health officer in West-

port. "We may say there is nor, and what is more, the police, we believe, cannot act unless under sworn informations, brought forward by private persons. That a nv.mber of pigs are kept at the back of houses, and that they are nuisances of the grossest kind is undeniable, but the results to the people living near have yet to be ascertained. This aloue is a crying shame, and one that should be seen to at once. But in addition to this source of abomination, there are yards at the back of some houses which are as bad as any pigstyes. Slops of all kinds are emptied in them, refuse of every sort, whether vegetable or animal is thrown out promiscuously, and the dirty condition of some of these places is excessive. Bnt no one appears to have a right to interfere. Just as in the olden days of Yankee land, every one was held to have a perfect " right to whop his own nigger" so the dirtier portion of the inhabitants here rejoice in an Elysium of filth, simply because there is no one to interfere with them. Besides this, there

are overflowing cesspools, there are houses without cesspool, where the back yards receive what should be tlieir contents ; there is, in fact, work for an inspector for a mouth, before this Augean stable could be cleansed. Such being the case, what is there to look forward to in a month or two, what is to prevent Dr Giles' fears from being realised to the utmost, and is it not better to shut the door before the steed is stolen ? Surely some one should communicate with the Government, and if powers do not exist to check these things, procure them without delay. The extension by proclamation of certain ordinances, would meet the case as far as the created

nuisances go, and it is a duty incumbent on those in authority to apply for it at once. At the same time, if in Westport as in other places, self preservation is really the first law of ' nature, the public should rise up and ;is*rutw3 cue suoject tnemseives ; whether or not they will do so is a matter of doubt.