The Globe. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1875.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 274, 28 April 1875, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1875.

The members of the Lyttelton Borough Council appear to be following somewhat in the wake of their brethren of the City Council of Christchurch, in endeavoring to obtain from the Provincial Council a grant in aid for municipal purposes. The matter was fully gone into on Monday evening, and Cr Graham in moving that the Borough ask for the sum of £20,000 set forth the manner in which he was of opinion the sum should be appropriated, namely, £6OOO for drainage, £2OOO for roads, footpaths and side channels, £2OO for gas lamps and fittings ; £3OOO for a town hall, £250 for an engine for the Fire Brigade, and a similar sum as a special grant for the Sumner Eoad and the Governor’s Bay Eoad. The mover seemed hardly to think that the Provincial Council would vote the sum of £20,000, but he thought that a grant in aid of £IO,OOO might be given, and he intimated that the remaining £IO,OOO might be borrowed by the Borough Council, and the repayment spread over a period of fifty years, provision being made from the rates for the interest and sinking fund. In the course of the discussion which ensued, the Mayor (Dr Eouse) pointed out that the sewerage of the town was absolutely necessary for Sanitary purposes, the Town Hall was a luxury and could be dispensed with, and as to the expenditure on water-works and gas fittings for lighting purposes that would be reproductive. He proposed that the Council should request the members for Lyttelton to ask the Provincial Council for a grant-in-aid amounting to £7500, being the sura actually required by the Works Committee. Cr Graham at once withdrew the motion he had made, and the proposition of his Worship the Mayor was agreed to unanimously. We cordially agree with the Mayor of Lyttelton, as to the paramount necessity of drainage, so as to remove all sewage matter from the vicinity of the dwellings of the inhabitants, and, we trust that the appeal to the Provincial Council will be liberally responded to by that body, more especially as we gather from the remarks of Cr Graham that the citizens of Lyttelton do not entirely wish to depend on the Government for aid, but are willing to try and help themselves in a matter which affects not only the health but the very lives of their families. Whilst, however, we admit the necessity of efficient drainage works for the town of Lyttelton being carried out as speedily as possible, there is a course of action which the inhabitants can at once initiate, which will tend greatly to improve the sanitary condition of the Town, and in some measure put a stop to the deaths arising from typhoid fever and other diseases which —almost like a destroying angel—have lately been sweeping through the town. The course of action to which we allude is Domestic Cleanliness. Instead of allowing vegetable refuse, house slops and other faecal matter to accumulate around the dwellings, poisoning the air with deadly miasma; it would be well if these were at once disposed of, either by removal or by being placed in the ground and covered with dry earth or ashes, which will prevent the escape of deleterious gases. We believe that the Mayor of Lyttelton—than whom no man is a better judge—will fully endorse the remarks we have made as to the vital importance of domestic cleanliness, and we feel assured that if the system we have indicated were carried into effect, the result will be renewed health to the inhabitants of Lyttelton,