The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 990, 28 August 1877, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1877.

It has not yet been satisfactorily settled why oranges and the melodrama are so inseparably connected. Given a really fully flavoured French article, with a murder or two, and the peripatetic vendor of oranges in the pit and stalls for that evening does a roaring trade. Just now in Christchurch, we should imagine, the patrons of the drama, who are also lovers of the succulent orange, have a good time of it. For some reason or other the vendors of this fruit have all taken it into their heads with surprising unanimity to sell it at a ridiculously low figure. The consequence is that the consumption has enormously increased. But while, for sanitary reasons, the use of oranges may have a beneficial effect upon the health of the population, there is attendant upon this_ a corresponding amount of danger to life and limb. The discarded peel which covers our footpaths is a grave source of danger to the unwary pedestrian, who is liable at any moment to come to'sudden grief. The result may be a broken arm or leg, or at least such a shock to the nervous system as to leave the unhappy victim with shattered health for months, Tt is of course impossible to prevent persons throwing orange peel on the pavement, but some means might be devised by which the men who daily sweep tjhe side channels might also remove with their brooms the treacherous peel from the pavement. Even with all the manifold other dangers of London streets, the statistics of the London Hospitals give the fact that to orange peel is due

a considerable proportion of accidents. Indeed by latest accounts we see that no Jess than thirty persons are returned as having died within a short time from the results of falls through orange peel. In view of the possibility—nay probability, if the present glut in the orange market continues —of some such a state of things on a smaller scale taking place here, we venture to commend to the civic authorities the suggestion we have made. It may be —and the thought is horrible to contemplate—that one of our civic magnates, his mind immersed in schemes for the welfare of his fellow citizens, may fall a victim to the peel scattered by some ruthless hand. Let us hope that such a dire calamity may not take place, but as prevention is better than cure, we trust that some means will be adopted to remove what will otherwise become a very fruitful source of accidents.