BOARD OF HEALTH.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 998, 6 September 1877, Page 2

BOARD OF HEALTH.

The Local Board of Health held a meeting this forenoon in its offices, Hereford street. Present—Mr Tancred (in the chair), Messrs Duncan, Jones, and Boss. MISCELLANEOUS. The Inspector of Nuisances reported : I have served a notice on the Church Property Trustees to abate a nuisance arising- from stagnant water on section 243 8., Avon district. At the time of service, I was informed that arrangements were being made with the Avon Road Board dealing with the nuisance in question. I have also served notice on Messrs Thompson and Parkerson, as agents for the trustees of the late Dr. Barker, to abate a nuisance arising from stagnant water in a gully on section 46 in the same district. There is also a large quantity of water in another portion of the same gully. As the filling up with earth will necessitate the service of notices on occupiers of small sections, I would first ask instructions from the Board, as I think some portion may possibly be remedied by drainage. In course of inspection near the Carlton Mill road I observed the channels in Andover street to be in a bad state from an accumulation of stagnant drainage. Having been requested by Mr Barnett to inspect his premises, 1 found the same Hooded, also the adjoining properties of Mr Reader and Mr Denham. The ground is completely saturated, and in the nature of a swamp ; the water in Mr Barnett’s cellar is nearly level with the ground. I can only account for the condition of the premises by leakage from the baths in the premises of the Gloucester street school. That part of the report referring to section 46, Avon district, was referred to the Engineer for the Drainage Board to report. Mr N. G-. Barnett and others complained in strong terms of a nuisance caused by the overflowing of water at the baths of the Christchurch East Main School. The Board held that the evidence was contradictory, and that the only satisfactory means of arriving aba conclusion as to whether the bath causes the nuisance was to request the Board of Education to have the bath emptied as soon as possible, and that the correspondence on the subject be handed to that. Board, attention being directed to Mr Barnett’s statement that the surplus water does not escape by the waste pipe. In dealing with a reiterated complaint from Mr Whiteman, off Durham street, regarding an offensive drain, the Board resolved—- “ That it is absolutely necessary for the health of the neighbourhood that the nuisance be abated, and that the City Council be requested to instruct its surveyor to confer with the engineer to the Drainage Board in matter.” The City Council wrote, asking the Board to contribute jpart of the cost of fencing in the

sandhills as a place for the deposit of nightsoil, and pointed out that the work would be mutually beneficial to both bodies. The Board regretted that it could not comply with the request at present. The Inspector of Nuisances was instructed to report on a nuisance complained of by Mr A. Eckhoft. MEDICAL OFFICER’S REPORT. The Board’s medical officer, Dr. Powell, reported:— That during the eight months ending August 31st, 1877, seventy cases of infectious diseases had been reported to the District Board of Health—a number of which represented the households in which disease had existed and not the individuals. There had been forty cases of scarlet fever, twenty of typhoid fever, and ten of diphtheria. The scarlet fever epidemic had been throughout, with but few exceptions, ot a remarkably mild type, and the mortality very small. He thought the district was to be congratulated on the visitation, which, at the expense of but slight suffering, would protect a large number of children from future,_ and possibly more serious, epidemics. Only thirteen cases had been reported during the past four months, and he learned from inquiry that this arose from actual dearth of cases. The cases of typhoid, as usual with that disease, had occurred during the summer and autumn months. Thei e were none of these cases at present in the Hospital, nor had any been admitted for some time. The cases of typhoid had been merely sporadic—not epidemic—arising here and there throughout the district, and not being so grouped as to indicate any general local cause. Twothirds of the cases occurred in the southern portion of the district, but the number was too small, and the cases had been too widely distributed, to justify any deduction from that possibly accidental fact. Six cases _ had occurred within the borough. He advised that it be s trongly impressed upon the public that this was a dangerous and infectious disease within the meaning of the Act, and that all well marked cases should be reported. Some of the cases of diptheria had been severe and some fatal. The total number of cases was small, including some trivial ones. The disease occurred in a purely sporadic manner. He wished to draw attention to the health of the borough, as indicated by the Registrar-General s vital statistics. The average monthly mortality for the first seven months of the year had been as low as 18.5 or 1,44 per 1000 of the population, calculated at 12,815. The number of deaths from zymotic diseases during the period mentioned had been thirty-three, twenty.four of which occurred amongst children under five years of age, considerably the larger proportion being caused by diarrhoea, and only three by scarlet fever. Twenty-three of the cases occurred during the first two months of the year. Since the invasion of scarlet fever in 1875, only fourteen deaths had occurred within the borough of Christchurch —one in 1875, ten in 1876, and three in 1877, and that in a population of 10,000. That the type had not been so mild in other parts of the colony, was shown by the fact that there had been ninety-one deaths in Dunedin — fifty-one last year, and thirty-nine during the first seven months of the present year, in a population of 23,305, while in Hokitika there had been thirty deaths since the commencement of the year in a population of 2905 —a very serious mortality indeed. The members considered this a highly satisfactory report, and it was suggested that it would be desirable to obtain a quarterly report from the medical officer. The Board then adjourned.