The Globe. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1039, 24 October 1877, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1877.

His W oeship the Mayor, has convened a public meeting to be held in the Oddfellows’ Hall to-morrow night to consider the question of the City Council resuming its power as a Local Board of Health for the City of Christchurch only ; and to oppose any rating power in the Public Health Amendment Act, 1877. We hope the speakers who intend to address the meeting will take care to keep these two questions entirely separate, and discuss each of them on their' own merits. The answer to the first may well be in the affirmative, while that to the second is in the negative. If the City Council wish to resume the powers of the Local Board of Health within the city, it is not at all likely that they will be opposed by the Drainage Board, But as this newly expressed desire has not yet been embodied in the form of a Bill, it is, we are afraid, too late to think of doing so this session with any prospect of success. The promoters of the meeting may think differently. They may he of opinion that even at this late period they can succeed in carrying a measure expressing their views. But at any rate a Bill can he prepared and introduced next session which will confer upon them this coveted power. In the meantime, we hope the ratepayers will not be so far blinded to their own self-interest as to prevent the Local Board of Health from obtaining the necessary funds with which to carry out the Act during the current year. If the measure before Parliament in some shape or other is not passed, the Health Act must become for another year a dead letter in the whole district. Is Professor Bickerton prepared to take the responbility of the consequences of such a state of things ? Because he fiuds himself in a “ helpless condition,” is he willing to run the risk of leaving the district during the whole of the summer, autumn, and coming winter, in a still more “ helpless condition ” a prey to diphtheria, fever, and other forms of sickness ? It was supposed that Cr. Biekerton’s scientific attainments would have been of great use to the Council from a sanitary point of view, and yet one of his first acts is to get a public meeting called to pass resolutions, which, if given effect to, may result in most disastrous consequences, not only to the city but to the whole district. We want the speakers to tell us how the health of the city and suburbs is to be attended to till the necessary legislation is obtained giving them the powers of a local board. The City Council and suburban Eoad Boards are without powers; the Drainage Board, as a Local Board of Health, possess the powers, but are without funds. At the very time when their services are most needed, when the summer is upon us, and when every precaution should be taken, are the Board’s medical officer and inspector to be dismissed, because a paltry few hundred pounds are refused by the ratepayers t Would the outbreak of an epedemic not just thousands, without mentioning the valuable lives which might be sacrificed, and ail to maintain the petty dignity

ot; Professor Bicker ton and Ids colleagues on the Sanitary Committee of the City Council ? Instead of aiding and abetting those gentlemen in their paltry ambition, we hope those who attend the meeting to-morrow night will reject with scorn and indignation any proposal which will result in rendering the Public Health Act a dead letter for a whole year.