"Dirty Little Cromwell.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 265, 27 October 1874, Page 6

"Dirty Little Cromwell.

Times,) _ Those of" our" who read'"Or 1 Coughtrey'* valuable* report upon dirty 1 littl.rf Cromwell, last Sum mer, but will be astonished vO hear that now that we are entering upon another fever season, little or nothing has been done to deodorise the offensive filth that created the fever that caused £h'edeath'pf so many citizens there last year. We indeed, that a good deal of talk has taken place, and that something has been done in the way of surveys ; but the majority of the inhabitants still drink the nauseous mess miscalled water, and the banks of the river are still covered with the offal and garbage of many years. The town itself is still a cloaca maxima.

Now, if anything could have aroused the sleeping energies of a Board, we should have supposed that an appalling disaster, such as swept over Cromwell last summer, would have had that effect. Hardly a house in which there was not one dead, but faintly expresses the extent of that disaster. Never was a plague more clearly traced to its proper cause. Dr Coughtrey's report said as plainly as words could say it, If you want to live you must cleanse yourselves. We make every allowance for the unwillingness of a representative body to enter upon any undertaking that must entail increased, largely increased, expenditure upon its constituents and their successors. The magnitude of the evil, however, is such, that we think no body of men are justified in acting as representatives at all, unless they were able to carry out- the needful reform. Your money or your life, is the demand; if the inhabitants of Cromwell really prefer to risk their life, it is a question whether a higher authority should not step in and protect them against their own indolence. " The old guard dies, but never surrenders," is a capital motto for a regiment; but the Cromwellians have translated it into " dirty Cromwell dies, but never washes itself." Judging by the fabulous accounts of gold recovered from the rich reefs of Cromwell, we cannot suppose that any lack of funds can cause the delay we note. There must be urely money circulating in the place enough to render it possible to get the sum required to avert a pestilence. What that sum is, we do not know ; but whatever it is, we must tell the people there they ought to find it. If they are too poor, they had better levy on the rest of the community, by means of a subscription list or art union, or some other swindle. We have known such efforts made for many less worthy objects. There is plenty of philanthropic spirit left in the Province to prevent the unfortunate inhabitants of Cromwell from dying in, and because of, their poverty. We are not speaking one moment too soon. It is eight months or so now since last the the fever made its first appearance in the place, and a warm spring might at any time hurry up the enemy's movements. We do not care again to catalogue the unmentionable abominations which are duly recorded in the report of Dr Coughtrey. Those who are curious Upon the point had better refer to the document, and learn there with surprise how very dirty negligence may make a young town. If the answer of the Town Council be that they are taking steps, and that they will be ready in lots of time, our answer is, in the words of him to whom they owe their name —" We beseech you, believe that you may be mistaken." We are not sanguine of any timely reform now. No doubt the Cromwellians have made up their minds to chance it, but if the fever makes its appearance again this year hanging will be all too good for the Town Council.