THE SANITARY STATE OF THE TOWN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 679, 23 April 1875, Page 3

THE SANITARY STATE OF THE TOWN.

AU VV IN, (TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUNSTAH TIMES.) Sir.—ln your issue of the, 16th instant, a person signing himself “ Contributor ” has made a most virulent attack upon myself, and as it is so personal and so feeble as a reply to my notice of the article on the sanitary condition of Clyde, which appeared in the Times of the 9th instant, I feel compelled to say something in answer thereto. I can readily believe that this gentleman, who isjamiliar with the “Indian Autumn” may be of a hasty and impulsive nature, and say strange things, which if uttered orally the traducor might escape with an admonition, but such an allowance indeed pity, cannot be extended, when malicious falsehoods find their way into print. He has started by describing and imputing motives to myself that are undeserving of notice, and my only reason in refering to the subject in anyway is to enable the unbiassed public to judge between us. In the first place I quote from “ Contributor’s ” letter, or whatever it may be designated of the second instant, and will summarize how 1 replied to it. Ho writes stead of Cromwell being designated as dirty Cromwell par excellence, the title could with some truth and aptitude he applied to Clyde. He then proceeds to characterise Clyde as a plague smitten spot, and after drawing the most alarming picture, and to show the application to Cromwell in eight lines from the'-ond of his bombastic tirade having commenced the article by alluding to Cromwell, proceeds—“ Although mercifully warned of its present existence in poor Cromwell,” &e. Warned of what? The approach of the Autumnal season, the Indian autumn, “ when all nature is in a state of death and decomposition, while the very atmosphere it self has dost its elasticity and recuperative power, ” &c., and yet in his scurrilous article in your last, he has the mild assurance to state that he made “ no charge against Cromwell, hut merely alluded to it as a “ B»acon.” I challenge him to show that piggeries exist close to dwellings in Cromwell—l challenge him to the proof of the foul slanders concerning the manure heaps, composed of every kind of filth, seething into the very hotbeds of disease and death, the presence of slaughter yards within a short distance of the town, bearing their non-odoriferous exhalations upon the bosom of the air, &c., and if these remarks were not intended to apply to us, why does this censor, or would be thought philantrophist at the end wind up with another allusion to us as “poor Cromwell.” I will however gratify his vanity, and disabuse bis mind of one erroneous impression that “ Veritas ” and the Cromwell correspondent are identical. He is simply in error, as no person but the Editor of the Dunstan Times, and the ‘ • comps ” ever so far as lam aware saw the copy of the “ Cromwell correspondence ” which was written at Cromwell, is on thin yellow paper, and was forwarded to the Office by the hands of a resident of Alexandra, whom 1 am assured was utterly ignorant of the contents of the missive ho carried. I am thus particular in stating this fact in order to confute Mr Contributor. The imputation of being an “ Amateur Inspector of Nuisances,” may with greater justice he applied to “ Contributor,” who, if he did not first inspect those piggeries, those manure heaps, the butcheries, the dead sheep, the offal, the dead cattle, &c., was only drawing upon hisimaginative faculties, and in place of circulating a libel, was uttering and giving publicity to statements that he must have known would have a most damaging effect upon the entire Dunstau district. That he may not have watched the “ Ducks and Geese ” luxuriating as of yore in the Town:raoe is within the hounds of probability, and he, in this instance, may have gleaned his information from a reliable source. As far as the dwellinghouses around this said “ piggery ” may be concerned, I only observed one which brought vividly before ray mind the lonely abode of the man of Glassford—Eugene Aram —but 1 missed the spiral observatory, and the works of literature. The biographer states that he was a man of unassuming ways and devoid of affectation, if I except the waving of the bandana, which subsequently gave place to a cambric in his dealing with the villain Houseman. The house was situate on the hill side, and tire great scholar was in the habit of taking his evening stroll on the verandah, inhaling the gentle evening breeze. Pardon the digression, you don’t see the application—well, no more do I.

I am called a “ reckless hireling,” I won't return the compliment, but rest content with my present victory. It was suggested by a well known Cromwellite, whoso name I enclose to the Editor, since it seems to bo the custom, that ‘’Contributor” should take a bath in the Clutha river be.

foro lie crosses the Cromwell bridge, and tlio rosidonts will kindly givo him an immersion on his departure, so that if anything should go wrong ho will not ho able to attribute the same to the influence of dirty Cromwell. I have written enough, and as every person knows who I am, let Mr Contributor sign his name and not assail a man whom ho dare not personally insult. Such a philantrophist should not bo ashamed or afraid, I thus dismiss the subject.—l am, &c,, Major. Cromwell, April 18, 1875.