The Globe. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1874.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 110, 7 October 1874, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1874.

Councillor Ice: has got a grievance, and like a true Briton loses no opportunity of exercising his inalienable privilege of grumbling. The remarks we recently made as to the overcrowding of houses in the city, appear to still rankle in the mind of the worthy Councillor, and at the weekly meeting of the Council, held on Monday evening, he took the opportunity of remarking upon the newspapers having blamed the Council for not carrying out the powers vested in them by the Public Health Act, stating that the Act, owing to a provision that it should be proclaimed every six months, was not in operation. But we would ask whose fault is it that the Act is in abeyance ? The Council, we may say, as the Local Board of Health, has the power to bring before the Central Board, or rather before the Superintendent, who is President of that Board, the necessity of having the Act re-proclaiined. Purther than this, it seems to us that Councillor Ick and the Mayor are begging the question when they attempt to justify the apathy of the Council in this matter by pleading that an Act from which their powers are derived has been —through their own fault —allowed to fall into abeyance. No one will, we think, deny that the powers conferred by the Act on the Council as a Local Board of Health are necessary for a proper conservation of the public health, and with their chief officer at the Central Board of Health as a member, it does seem strange that they should knowingly allow themselves to be divested of those powers. The Mayor, that day, seems to have been suddenly struck with the necessity for the re-proclama-tion of the Act here, and after eight months torpidity, moves a resolution to this effect at the Central Board of Health. Theratepayers will therefore see that the position the Council has taken up is that they have knowingly allowed the machinery by which they are empowered to supervise the public health to drop into disuse, and when the danger of allowing this to go on is brought under their notice, they turn round and say, " Oh, the " Act does not apply , it has " not been re-proclaimed here." Therefore there can be no unfairness nor injustice in blaming the Council for placing themselves in a position in which they are precluded from making use of the powers granted to them by the Legislature. However, we are glad to see some slight signs of amendment, and that the protest we have made has at last caused his Worship to bestir himself to get the Act reproclaimed. When this is done, it is to be hoped the Council will vigorously and practically make use of* the provisions of the Public Health Act.

His Hon on Mk Justice Gresson from the Bench, has again brought before the public the enormous expense entailed upon the province by the prosecutions at the Supreme Court of persons sent for trial for passing valueless cheques. His Honor pointed out in plain and unmistakable terms, that this expense is due mainly to the facility with which shopkeepers, and others in business, accept cheques presented by persons totally unknown to them. In some cases the amount has not exceeded :C5, while the cost of prosecution has entailed an expenditure of two or three times that sum, and this might have all been saved by the exercise of common prudence. The evidence in most of the cases is usually of the same character, and shows that very little, if any, attempt is made to ascertain whether the cheque tendered is good, though the storekeeper probably has never seen the person before. It seems, therefore, that in such

cases as these the loss of the money is well deserved, and if persons Avill not take the simplest precautions to prevent themselves being swindled, surely the country should not be called upon to expend large sums to punish offenders, to whom in a great degree a premium is held out by the laxity of business people in this respect. The words of his Honor on this subject are entitled to the greatest possible weight, and it is to be hoped that in future it will not be necessary for such remarks • to be made.