The Globe. SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1879.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1588, 22 March 1879, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1879.

At the last meeting of the Local Board of Health a most important report was submitted by the health officer. It referred to a subject which is of vital interest to all, and is one which we trust will receive at the hands of the City Council that careful consideration which its importance demands. 14 is now pretty well admitted that typhoid fever is endemic in Christchurch. This has boen from time to time attributed to various causes. The miasma arising from the Avon, the exhalations from a waterlogged soil, and a number of other reasons have been given to explain the fact that typhoid fever is so rife amongst us. But Dr. Powell has discovered a patent cause which has been unaccountably overlooked hitherto, and has brought to bear in support of his theory a most potent array of facts. His opinion is that typhoid fever is caused, to a considerable extent, by the gullies and depressions in the city being used in a manner totally at variance with all sound rules of hygienic science. He points out that the slops and sewage from the houses flow into these natural depressions, and that they are also made the receptacles for rubbish of all kinds. Not only does this matter have a most injurious local effect, but, part of it becoming dust, is carried by the wind in every direction, and bears with it the seeds of typhoid fever, and, that equally to be dreaded disease, diphtheria. Even, without the startling facts which Dr. Powell brings forward in support of this opinion, it appears on first sight to be well worthy of credit. We need only look at the gullies which exist, and notice the quantity of rubbish deposited therein, to be quite certain that they must form hotbeds of disease; not only for those living in the immediate neighbourhood, but for the dwellers in distant parts of the town. It is evident that this is a very serious matter. The physical conformation of country on which Christchureh is built is not favourable in a sanitary point of view, and the residents cannot afford to allow one single removable cause of disease to remain. It therefore behoves the City Council, in whose hands, to a great extent, the remedy lies to be up and doing. Dr. Powell referi to a Municipal by-law providing for the filling up of gullies, &c, a by-law which, however, is not enforced. If this still remains on the municipal statute book its provisions should be rigidly carried out. If it does not, then the city Inspector of Nuisances should be at once be instructed to take proceedings against any person placing rubbish in these gullies, and, if necessary, to have the rubbish, &c, now there covered with earth. We commend Dr. Powell's report to the careful consideration of the City Council, in the hope that some means may be taken to remedy a state of things which may, at any moment, prove most disastrous to the whole community.

Theee is every probability of the navigation of the Heathcote above the Cemetery road being shortly stopped by a permanent bridge, which, if the wishes of the residents in those parts are to be consulted, will soon be erected. It is not surprising that a resolution favouring the plan of connecting the two sides of the river has been passed. The utility of the upper part of the Heathcote for trading purposes is almost nil, and if the idea entertained is carried out, such craft as pass the Sumner bar will be able to run alongside a wharf in connection with the railway system, so that both the coastal traders and the Heathcote public will be gainers by the now arrangomont. The importance of both the Heathcote and the Avon, as means of communication, has been steadily evaporating before the growth of railway communication. Any old resident will remember, with a smile,

tho hopes that wore built on the future of "The Bricks." Tins landing place in tho cast of the town, was pictured as a spot tLat might thereafter bo crowded with the masts of numerous small coasting craft, discharging their cargoes for the benefit of an expectant Cbristchurch public. A river "is a road that runs of its own accord," says Swcdeuborg, and surely the carriage of goods by the Avon would always bo cheaper than by any other way! But " tho iron horse, shaking his long tail of carriages," appeared on tho scene, and tho valuo of tho Avon and Heathcoto vanished before it. Tho last attempt to utilise iho former river for purposes of public utility was when an entorprising, but ill advised, individual started a small steamor to carry passengers and goods botweon Cbristchurch and New Brighton. The speculation was not a success. Tho curious would assemble in crowds to seo tho snorting apparatus throwing up huge waves on either bank, and would cheer lustily when it departed on its journey with only tho stoker and tho steorsman on board. But financially tho affair was a fiasco, and nobody was heard to utter a sound of complaint when tho bridge ovor Ihe river at Now Brighton practically cut oil' that groat emporium of the future—- " tho bricks," —from tho outer world. " Sic transit gloria mundi." The Avon and Hoathcote havo both had their day. Like tho Red Indian their utility is Vanishing h«for« tho steps of civilization.