The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1877.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 52, 16 January 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1877.

The Local Board of Health in calling attention to nuisances existing in Akaroa, has taken a step in the right direction, and the warning which lias been given to the butchers to desist from throwing stinking offal on to the beach, or into the harbour, appears to have been highly needed, judging from the statement made by His Worship the Mayor in his capacity of Chairman of the Board, at the meeting on Wednesday evening. His Worship is reported to have paid. " that on Tuesday last he noticed a bag '' of stinking suet and other refuse strewn " along the beach. The evening pre- " vious, he saw a person carrying a bag "on his back, and drop it quietly over " the jetty. The Council had to pay " 2s 6d for burying the contents of that " bag. Hardly a day passed without " some kind of butchers' offal being dis- " covered on the beach. If he had felt " inclined to summons the butcher "who had ordered the deposit of the " offal, lie would not have much trouble "in pointing out the guilty party. On " Saturday he noticed a dead pig, on " Sunday a fore-quarter of beef, on Tues- " day a bag of suet, and "Wednesday a " dead sheep. He had that day been " walking along with Mr, Aylmer and " Mr. Fenton, and lie could assure the " Board that the stench was enough to " knock them down." A pretty state of things truly ! alike discreditable to the perpetrators of the nuisance, and to the authorities who permit those who perpetrate it to go unpunished. Here we have the Chief Magistrate of the Borough in company with the Resident Magistrate and another Government official, walking along the beach amidst a " stench that was enough to knock them down," and, yet, so far as we have heard, taking no trouble for the punishment of the offenders. His Worship the Mayor ought at once to have informed the police of " the person who dropped the bag quietly over the jetty, and we are almost inclined to look upon him as a particepa criminis, if, as he says, he " would have no difficulty in pointing out the butcher who ordered the deposit of offal on the beach." We notice also that in the whole of His Worship's speech, as reported, there is not one word said of the injury likely to arise to health from the decomposition of organic matter on the beach, We greatly regret having been compelled to comment in what may be thought by some, to be severe terms on the laches of the highest civic authority, but a sense of the paramount duty we owe to the public, overcome every other consideration.

The Local Board of Health has acted wisely in giving notice in the terms of the Act, respecting the consideration of earth closets, ashpits, and other receptacles, of faecal or other organic matter, an accumulation of which is prejudicial to health, and which ought to, be remojed from the vicinity of human dwellings' as quickly as possible. Some time since we pointed out the necessity of this being done : and likewise offered some suggestion for the deodorization aiid utilisation of sewage matter ; we are therefore glad that this has been taken up by the Board. There is, however, one subject of such importance, that we should be failing in our duty, did we not prominently notice it. We trust that every effort will be used to prevent the pollution of the small streams —so numerous in Akaroa by decaying vegetable or animal matter, or by allowing sewage matter to flow into them. The water of these streams is used for drinking purposes by the inhabitants, and. it is of vital consequence that. it should be perfectly pure. "Water polluted in the manner we have pointed out, although it may be as clear as crystal and pleasant rather than otherwise to the taste, contains a deadly poison, and is the fruitful source of fever and other maladies to which the human frame is subject.

We are glad that local self-government, as administered by the Borough Council, whether as a body having the control and management of the streets and road?, or, as one entrusted with the charge of the sanitary condition of the town, prevails in Akaroa, as there is every probability that measures will be adopted that will eventuate not only in great improvements being effected in the roads, footpaths, and the style of the buildings, private and public, but that such provision will be made to ensure the healthy character of the locality, as will render it as remarkable for its salubrity, as it is for the beauty of its scenery. Meanwhile, until time has been given to carry out the improvements which are contemplated, we would call upon the inhabitants to assist the authorities in all sanitary reforms, by practising scrupulous cleanliness, both inside and in the vicinity of their dwellings. It will be to their interest to do so, not only as regards the health of themselves and families, but as rendering the place attractive to visitors. The lovely scenery will go for nothing, if, in addition thereto the eyes of visitors see masses of putrefying offal and the carcases of animals rotting on the beach, and their olfactory organs are offended by " the knock-em .down stenches " spoken of by His Worship the Mayor.