The Evening Star THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4306, 14 December 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1876.

The towns of the Colony Have increased so much in size during the past few years, while they are all badly drained, that an effective Public Health law is become highly necessary. The Act of 1873 was such an incongruous assemblage of heterogeneous clauses that it would probably have remained a dead letter on the statute book but for circumstances arising which made it incumbent upon the governing bodies of the country to use whatever statutory authority they possessed, whether much or little, for the purpose of preventing the propogation of dangerous diseases. The Act passed during last seaion of Assembly is a far superior measure to that which it replaces. It deals with the subject in a highly comprehensive manner, enabling the Boards which it constitutes, if they perform their duty, to take ample precautions against both the outbreak and dissemination of disease ; giving power to establish an effective quarantine, and rendering vaccination compulsory. The general supervision of the sanitary arrangements of the Colony is entrusted to a Central Board, composed of not less than four nor more than seven persons, nominated by the Governor and presided over by the Colonial Secretary, and holding in reserve almost despotic powers, for use in time of emergency. This Board has, it may be observed, been duly appointed, and sits at Wellington. In addition to the Central Board, and subject to it, a network of Local Boards is spread over the- country, in the shape of the governing bodies of municipalities, highway and road boards, &0., each of which is charged with the* preservation of the public health in its particular district; and should it neglect its duty, the Central Board can step in and perform it at the cost of the local body. The Act is rather defective in the provision which it makes for the outlay that will be entailed in carrying out its directions. The Central Board is supplied with funds by the General Assembly ; but the local Boards are thrown upon their own resources and left to seek ways and means from the general rates collected in the district, no authority being given to levy a special health rate, or other source of revenue provided; save, indeed, that the Boards may, if they like, undertake the work of scavengers, and enjoy any profits to be derived from this unsavory business. Contractors for scavenging at Home, it is said, find the occupation a lucrative one ; and possibly the local Boards may be able to turn an honest penny in this way, and so relieve the rates. In the event of any part of the Colony being threatened with a “ formidable epidemic, endemic, or infectious disease,” the Central Board is empowered to make special regulations for the speedy burial of the dead; for house to house visitation; for providing medical aid, promoting cleansing, ventilation, and disinfection; and for guarding against the spread of disease. It will then become the duty of the Local Board to execute the regulations at its own expense. Apart from these special regulations, the Act contains numerous clauses specifying measures to be taken by tbe Local Boards for preventing or checking infectious disease. A Local Board, on the receipt of a medical certificate of the necessity of the proceeding, may require the owner or occupier of a house to cleanse and disinfect it, at his own expense ; and if he neglects to comply with the notice, the Board may perform the work and charge him with the cost; while the offender .subjects' himself to a penalty of £1 a day in addition. Then follows a clause which, as it concerns every

householder, is worth reprinting “Clause 28. When a housholder knows that a person within the'house occupied by ' him is taken sick of smallpox, cholera, or (ftnv other highly infectious disease danger a to the people, he shall immediately m Ve notice thereof to the Local Board of the trict in which he dwells. If he refuses or n'<*fleot« to give such notice he shall forfeit A sum not exceeding £lO. It shall be the duty* of the medical practitioner in atten dance on such case to state to the houseI holder, as aarly as possible, the infectious 'i nature of suci disease.” . I It is also penal for a person suffering from J a dangerous infectious disorder to expose ' himself, without taking proper precautions against spreading the disorder, m the II street, or in a shop, tavern, or public ♦-conveyance | or for the owner er driver of a public conveyance to neglect .'•‘to dhdufeet it after it has been fdr fife (fcrrfi#6 o! all infected

Secaon ; but it is justly provided that the rjyer of the vehicle shall not be required to convey such a passenger until he has been paid sufficient to indemnify him against the loss that he might otherwise incur by obeying the commands of the Act. Then, too, it is made unlawful to sell or expose infected bedding or articles of clothing, and to let infected lodgings, the latter provision applying to innkeepers as well as to other persons. The part of the Act dealing with nuisancesbrings within the meaning of that term, so far as towns with a population of 5,000 inhabitants are concerned, “any fireplace or furnace which does not so far as practicable consume the smoke arising from the combustible used therein, and which is used for working engines by steam, or in any mill, factory, dyehouse, brewery, bakehouse, or gaswork, or in any manufacturing 01 trade process whatsoever ; and any chimney (not being the chimney of a private dwellinghouse) sending forth black smoke in such quantity as to be anuisance.” An overcrowded house is also brought within the same category. The Boards and their officers are clothed with full powers of entering upon premises where nuisances exist, and may proceed against offenders either by way of complaint to be heard befoie a Resident Magistrate or in the Supreme Court; tho common law right of indictment being moreover preserved. The nuisance occasioned by the carrying on of offensive trades is treated specially. Any ten residents of a locality caa set the law in motion by certifying to the Local Board rhat an establishment where an offensive trade is being carried on is a nuisance to the inhabitants of the district; and slaughter-houses for example which are really nuisances to the neighborhood can thus be easily suppressed; while, on the other hand, the owner of an establishment of this kind will have a full opportunity of defending himself against vexatious complaints in open Court. For the future, no trade of an offensive character can be started in an incorporated town without the previous consent of the local Board, expressed in writing.