THE BAY OF PLENTY TIMES. “The spirit of the times shall teach me speed." KING JOHN, ACT IV. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1873

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 128, 22 November 1873, Page 2

THE BAY OF PLENTY TIMES. “ The spirit of the times shall teach me speed. " KING JOHN, ACT IV. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1873

Not very many years ago a respected medical man, who had acquired a deserved popularity and a high professional reputation, left Tauranga because, as he said, it was so “ disgustingly healthy.” The township is now in a condition to invite him to return, for all the elements of plague and pestilence not only exist, but are apparently cherished amongst us. What stranger or visitor could walk along Willow-street without being informed by his olfactory nerves that putrefaction almost surrounded him ? Putrefying animal refuse, decaying or decayed vegetable matter, or even putrid or long stagnant water, produce a poisonous gas known to chemists as the sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which, when sufficiently concentrated by a long-standing nuisance, is instantly fatal. There have been numerous instances of men employed to empty old cesspools dropping dead in the midst of their occupation, simply through disturbance of an accumulated magazine of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. This gas is caused in towns by the absence of drainage and ventilation. The terrible plague of London, which, in 1665, swept off 80,000 inhabitants of the metropolis of England, was due entirely to the crowded state of habitations and the absence of drainage. Since the great fire, which, a year later, swept away the narrow streets, the plague has never returned. The cholera, of late years, which excited an almost equal alarm, has, since the improvements made by the Sanitary Commissioners, in the widening of streets and perfecting of drainage, almost been confined to such localities as the improvements have not reached. Yet still we know that the Prince Consort died of typhus fever which had somehow spread from the slums of Westminster, and which disease defied th© highest of medical skill. We in

Tauranga are remarkably favoured by a situation which enables us to indulge in filthy deposits with impunity- No nTatter in which direction the wind blows, we may safely calculate on the poisonous malaria being swept away. But let any stranger for curios’ty only, walk along Willow' street, particularly behind the allotments occupied by Messrs Harvey and Kirk and they will see, in the dryest weather’ a seething mass of putrid water—putrid with animal and vegetable matter, emitting an intolerably offensive smell. Nature furnishes us with pain to enable us to guard against wounds, and with a delicate sense of smell to tell us that certain odours are pestilential. We owe it simply to the fact of our proximity to the sea that we have been able to endure the accumulating vapours of Te Papa with safety. Our object in making these remarks is simply to show the necessity of the levels of the town being taken systematically by an officer of the General Government. The town may be easily drained, none more easily ; but, by neglect, it may be as easily poisoned, and, in a minor form, the horrors of 1665 repeated by a plague or pestilence, which may destroy a member of every household, cause the “dead cart” to go round at midnight, and the cross to be marked on every door with the terrible words, “The -Lord have mercy upon us,”

Ik our advertising columns will be found an announcement that, at the commencement of the new year, the Bay of Plenty .Times will be published three times a week, and supplied to subscribers without any additional charge. We shall have something more to say on this subject shortly.

A gentleman, well-known in the commercial world, not only st Auckland, but throughout this and the neighbouring colonies, for hia enterprise and, to use an Americanism, go-aheadnesg arrived here by the Southern Cross on Thursday moraine last on a short visit to the district. He expresses himself highly pleased and delighted at the busy prosperous look about the place, and is so thoroughly impressed with the brilliant future he prophecies for the Bay of Plenty, and especially for lauranga, that he has authorised us fco state that he is prepared forthwith to build a steamer more suitable for our large and daily increasing trade than the “ fast and favourite s.s. Southern Cross. We are not at liberty to mention the name of the gentleman we refer to, nor are we at present in possession of the exact conditions he proposes—-fur conditions, of course, there are ; but we think we are speaking within bounds when we say that ho is prepared to invest sis thousand pounds in the “ concern" provided another two thousand pounds can be raised in shares amongst the settlers of this district, as a substantial guarantee that the steamer will secure public support. It is not, we are informed, so much a matter of money—this £2,ooo—as all the fund? could doubtless be easily raised in Auckland for so desirable an investment; but the promoter is anxious to obtain an tamest of support before giving the order to the ship builders." The offer appears to us to be a very liberal one, and is an opportunity that, we trust, will not be allowed to pass by. We shall be in receipt shortly of further particulars, and shall hasten to place them before our readers. In the meantime, we hope some of our leading commercial men will move in the matter.

The Saperintendency election returns are now all in. The last received were those from Maungatoroto, where the polling resulted aa follows Dargaville, t> ; Lusk, 19 ; Williamson, 5. This makes the total number for each candidate as follows :—Dargaville, 2,440 ; Lusk, 1,817 ; Williansocn, 2,929. The total number of votes recorded has been 7,200, against 5.010 in the last election for Superintendent ; showing that 2,190 more have voted on the present occasion than on the previous one. The official declaration of the poll, we learn by telegram, was made by Colonel Balneavis at tbe Mechanics’ Institute, Auckland on Thursday last, at noon. Deduction by scrutiny Dargaville, 69 ; Lusk, 29 ; Williamson, 98. Final majority for Mr Williamson, 460.