The Globe. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1874.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 103, 29 September 1874, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1874.

Our article of yesterday respecting the overcrowding of families in the houses of the city seems to have caused some consternation in the minds of our city magnates. Councillor Ick is reported to have observed that the writer could not have known the action taken by Councillor Bishop at the last sitting. Now what was that action ? We turn to the report of the meeting of the City Council of that day, and we find the following : *—" Councillor Bishop moved —' That " the Eegistrar-Greneral's report of the " vital statistics for August last be " handed to the sanitary committee to " report, if necessary, as to the healthy " condition of Christchurch.' " That report may or may not have been brought up, but what would be the result if it was ? Very likely something similar to I he documents spoken of in a recent case, put into a pigeonhole and forgotten. But the Councillors who are so irate in this matter aeera to forget that it is useless to move motions for committees to report upon facts which cannot be controverted, and the result of whose labours would be simply nothing. What we contend for is this; the Council, under the Public Health Act, is constituted the Local Board of Health, and in their hands is vested the sole charge of the sanitary condition of the city, therefore when it is matter of public comment, when scarcely a hundred yards from the residence of a Councillor there are or were very lately four families living in a four-roomed house, with but one fireplace for all ol them for cooking, &c, it surely is time that the power the Council holdt

should bo used to put a stop to this state of things. Mr Councillor Ick seems particularly aggrieved in the matter, and recommends public writers to make inquiries in the matter before writing. We may inform this gentleman that such inquiries were made, and the result fully bears out what we have stated, and what we again reiterate, that there are houses in this city so packed with human beings, as to render it more than likely that when the summer weather sets in an epidemic of the most virulent type will break out out amongst us. Will Councillor Ick or his Worship the Mayor say that this is the proper state of things to exist, with a Local Board of Health clothed with ample powers in our midst ? It is not, as is attempted to be put by Mr Ick, that the papers try to run down the Council; on the contrary ; but surely, wheu it seen that such overcrowding is going on, it is the duty of the journalist to rait<e the voice of warning, and in view of the approaching warm weather to urge upon the body whose duty it is to take action in the matter, the necessity of remedial measures. It seems to us that the Council are the only persons who are unaware of the state of things, and that they are content, so long as the inspector's book contains a note of so many puddles filled up, or so much stuff removed, to allow things to take their course.