BOARD OF HEALTH.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2130, 21 December 1880, Page 3

BOARD OF HEALTH.

The Local Board of Health met after the Drainage Board yesterday afternoon. Present —Messrs Harman (chairman), Hobbs, filakiston, Cuff, White, Hall, Brown, and Boss. The health officer's report was read as follows:

Christchnrch, December 20tb, 1880. The Chairman Board of Health.—Sir, —l have the honor to report that I have visited within the last few days nine of the Government schools in and around Christchnrch, with the object of satisfying myself as to their ventilation, and also with regard to their closet accommodation. As the long vacation has now begun, when some improvements might be carried out without interfering with the attendance of the children, I wish for the present briefly to state that the suggestions made by your late medical officer, Dr. Powell, and recommended by your Board to the Education Department, have not been Btrictly adhered to. Some of the schools are deficient in accommodation for the number of children attending them, and masters are sometimes obliged to use passages for classrooms. The ventilation is in some schools very imperfect. Cloak rooms are in several schools deficient in space, and at none of the schools are they sufficiently removed from the schoolrooms, sufficiently ventilated, or capable of being sufficiently heated to dry the clothes. Lavatories are at almost all the schools either absent or not supplied with water. The urinals are at some schools either not concreted, not flushed with water, or not properly drained. Thecloset3 have in no instance received that attention which judged of from a sanitary point of view they deserve. At all the schools they are without exception deficient in respect to ventilation, not one of them being ventilated from beneath the seat by a shaft running up above the roof. In some there is no concrete on the floors ; in others there are leaky pans ; while at some of the schools

the closets are without doors, and the very objectionable practice prevails of having two seats in one compartment The pans, as a rule, are not emptied oftener than once a week, and there is no attempt made at any of them to nee earth. At the Papanni school the disgusting system of cesspits is still in force, and should be forthwith discontinned. At the Normal School, for the first time since I have been appointed medical officer, I experienced some difficulty in gaining access to premises for purposes of inspection. Here, to my astonishment, I had to overcome the scruples of several officials before I was allowed to visit the place. I beg to draw your attention to the letter which you forwarded to the chairman of the Licensing Board on February 9th, 1880, and t» inform you that the suggestions contained therein for the guidance of licensed houses have not been carried out efficiently in very many instances. I have quite recently inspected fortyfive of these places in Christchurch and its suburbs, and none of them are visited by the nightman more than three times a week. Home of the closets are simply disgraceful, they are not emptied more than once a week, and they are not supplied with earth or with proper boxes for containing earth. The urinals require in many cases to be concreted and flushed with water.

I have, &c, Courtney Nbdwill, Medical Officer. It was deoided to tend a copy of the report with reference to schools to the Board of 1 Education, and to forward the remarks on publiohoußes to the Licensing Bench. The Chairman drew attention to neglect of ■ sanitary measures in the Papanui district, through which serious nuisances occurred. The Chairman was empowered to take such steps for the abatement of the nuisances as might to him seem necessary. In reference to the late Hospital enquiry, a letter was'.read from the Colonial Secretary's office, enclosing Dr. Skae's report, which has already been published. Mr Hall regarded the report as satisfactory, inasmuch as it bore out the statements made by Dr. Nedwill, at the same time he thought still it would have been better not to have had the investigation at all. As the case stood, it was impossible that the Hospital could be satisfactorily conducted. And here he must say that the Hospitalßoard had laid themselves open to adverse criticism by their action in reference to the appointment of a medical staff, having held the meeting one day earlier than usual, in order to secure the presence of the retiring Mayor, whose views they knew coincided With their own, and also in suddenly and without notice presenting Dr. Skae's report. He spoke under correction. But this he was certain of, that the present state of things was exceedingly detrimental to the credit of the institution. Mr Hobbs moved—" That the chairman be requested to write to the Colonial Secretary, as president of the Central Board of Health, to inform him that this Board can have no confidence in the correctness of the Health statistics for Christchuroh as long as the members of the late Hospital staff hold office at the Christchurch Hospital; and, further, that this Board regrets that the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board should have re-elected so many members of the late medical staff subsequent to the receipt of the report of the Boyal Commissioner who held the recent enquiry at the Christchuroh Hospital." Mr Brown dissented from the proposal. He thought it would come with a bad grace from that Board (who had once been asked by the ratepayers to resign) to express_ want of confidence in another body. He did not pretend to medical knowledge, but he believed that no man possessed of common sense could honestly aooept the report of Dr. Skae as just and fair in face of the evidence. He also remarked that, in his opinion, the whole of this trouble had arisen out of party feeling between the medical men. He proposed an amendment, that the report be received. Mr Hall suggested that they should defer consideration of the question till next meeting, as they might in the meantime beoome possessed of further information for their guidance.

This suggestion received the support of Mr Cuff.

The Board agreed to a postponement. The following is the list of infectious diseases reported to the Board of Health since November Bth :

Total ... 22 6 6 34 The usual accounts wore passed for payment. The Board then adjourned.

Typhoid. Diphtheria. Scarlet. Total, Christchurch 10 0 2 12 Sydenham... 5 0 1 6 Avon 2 4 2 8 Heathcote ... 5 1 1 7 Eiccarton ... 0 1 0 1