The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1877.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 63, 23 February 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1877.

Thk question of drainage, and the sayings and; doings of the Christchurch District Drainage Board, are at present greatly exercising the minds of the | citizens of Christchurch, and the residents of the Heathcote District. The scheme of Mr. Carruthers, and the action oi the Board thereon, have been freely canvassed at public meetings by newspaper correspondents, and by people the streets ; indeed, the allabsorbing topic of the day in Christchurch and its vicinity is, drainage. Some of the people of Christchurch, and those not a few, are dissatsified with Mr. Carrathers'sproposed method of disposing of the excreta, believing that it will not effect the desired end, but, on the contrary, will be a prolific source of disease and death, whilst the residents of the Heathcote unanimously and emphatically protest against the Estuary being made a receptacle into which all the house slops and facal matter of Christchurch are to be poured. We are not going to enter upon a discussion of the merits or demerits of Mr. Carruthers's scheme, neither will we venture to predicate whether the fears of the Heathcote people are well founded or not, but this we do affirm, that the members of the Borough Council of Akaroa, as members of the Local Board of Health, will lose nothing by carefully watching the course of events. On the contrary they, may obtain many useful suggestions by making themselves acquainted with the general principles of Mr. Carruthers's scheme, and observing the effect produced by the operation of the drainage works of" Christchurch and its vicinity, as they are from time to time completed. Meanwhile, until a well devised and carefully considered scheme of drainage can be brought into effect in Akaroa, the members of the Board of Health will best discharge their duty, by seeing that fcecal matter is removed to such a distance, as not to be prejudicial to health, and that heaps of vegetable and animal matter are not allowed to accumulate in the vicinity of the dwellings, or in the streets, rotting and festering in the sun, and poisoning the air with miasma, pregnant with disease and death.

Water poisoning is, however, more deadly in effects, and if possible more insidious in its operation, than is the poison—resulting from the decomposition of organic matter —with which at certain seasons the air is impregnated. The water supply of Akaroa is mainly, if not altogether derived from the numerous creeks which, rising in the amphitheatre of hills that surround the town and harbour, discharge themselves into the bay. These rivulets ordinarily flow very rapidly, the water being pellucid as crystal aud remarkably refreshing and grateful to the taste. Yet, if care be not taken, these resources of refreshment and health may become the fruitful origin of disease and death, and that too, without losing any of their clearness, and becoming, if possible, sweeter to the palate. On a previous occasion we briefly alluded to this subject, but knowing its paramount importance as a matter of life and death, we once more bring it prominently under public notice. One of the sources of pollution, is doubtless the flowing into these creeks of sewage matter, but this, although bad enough, is harmless compared with one we are about to mention. The carcasses or animals dying in the bush, if, by any chance they get into these streams, and are allowed to decay there, poison the water from where they are decomposing to where it discharges itself into the sea, and, strange to say the water thus poisoned has a singular sweetness of taste. In drawing attention to this matter, we have no wish to act as alarmists, but we know its vital importance, and say to the members of the Board of Health—" ask your medical officer whether every word that we have written is not the truth ?" and then act accordingly. The rivulets which supply Akaroa with water for drinking and domestic purposes ought to be thoroughly and periodically examined from their source downwards, in order to free them from that pollution, which, if allowed to remain, must enevitably cause a frightful amount of disease. Money spent in this way would be money well laid out, and we believe that even the medical officer of the Board of Health would admit that " Prevention is better than Cure."