BOARD OF HEALTH.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2152, 18 January 1881, Page 4

BOARD OF HEALTH.

The local Board of Health met yesterday afternoon after tho Drainage Board, there being present—Mr Hobbs, acting chairman, Messrs Ross, Blakiston, Tanored, Cuff, Hall, Brown, and White. Mr R.|J. 8. Harman was re-elected chairman of the Board. The following report from tho Health Officer was read :

Christchurch, January 4th, 1881. The Chairman Board of Health. Sir,—l have the honor to report for your information that I havo inquired into the outbreak of diphtheria at Papanui, and have come to the conclusion that the disease in all probability spread; from the school. Six families have been attacked, and there have been already two deaths. Three of the families live on Horner's land, and tho other three in isolated houses further back in Papanui towards the Styx. Of the six families, children from five of them were attending the school. Horner’s land is entirely without sewerage for carrying away ‘‘slops” and sur. face water. It requires to be drained, to have its streets and side channels formed, and its closets (some of which are most disgustingly filthy), attended to. Unless these directions are carried out, this part of Papanui is sure to boesmo u regular hot-bed of disease. The cesspits at the school should bo abolished, the urinal concreted, and the school itself (which is, I believe, much too small for the number of children attending It,) should he thoroughly disinfected, and have tho whole of the woodwork well scrubbed. I have, &c., Courtney Nbi>wii,!,, Medical Officer. Tho report was referred to the chairman, with power to act. Dr. Nedwill wrote an explanation, as follows :

Christchurch, January 12th, 1881. The Chairman Board of Health. Sir, —I have the honour to inform you, in reply to your memorandum of January 7th, that Mr Wallace, the officer to whom I presented myself at the Normal school, received me with marked indifference. Ho seemed to look upon me as an intruder, and evidently considered that the Medical Officer of Health was not deserving of civility. He refused to go round the school with me, refused to leave his office to get anyone to go round with me, and told me, in an offhand way. that by applying at another door in the building I might, perchance, find someone else. After I had wandered about in the passages for some time 1 met Mr Thornton, and through his kindness I was conducted to Mr llayner, who was very civil to me, but seemed frightened at the idea of taking the responsibility upon himself ot allowing me to go round the school in the absence of the head-master. He took me to Mr Veel’s office, but, unfortunately, Mr Veol was not in. At last, on talking the matter over with Mr Raynor, I was able to persuade him that the responsibility of taking me round the school would not be so great as the responsibility of refusing to do so. Since my appointment as Medical Officer of Health, with the single exception of the Normal school, to secure admittance to any premises and the utmost civility, I have only found it necessary to give my name. By referring to my report of 'December 20th, 1880, and the report of March Jlth, 1879, of the late Medical Officer, Dr. Powell (copies of both of which are in the possession of the Board of Education), the Board can easily find out the schools which fail in sanitary requirements. My late examination of the schools was not intended to be exhaustive, but I found that they all required improvements in the ventilation of their closets, all required their closet pans more frequently emptied, and the closets to he scrubbed out frequently with some disinfectant ns well as supplied with dry earth. I appond a copy of the notes which I took at some of the schools. I may add that if I can bo of any service to the Board of Education. or to any of the school committees, I shall be glad to help them.— l have, &0., Codbtxst Nkdwu,l, Mediool Officer. It was resolved to > forward a copy of the above to the Board of Education. A letter was read from tho Colonial Secretary’s Office, forwording copy of Dr. Bkao’a 'report on allegations as to the death of certain patients in the Hospital. Tho letter was ordered to be acknowledged. A letter was read from Mr Anderson, as follows, re the late Hospital enquiry : To tho Chairman, &c. : Sir,—As the person whose name appears first on tho list of signatures, I have been requested to forward you a copy of the “representation which has been forwarded to tho Colonial Secretary on tho subject of tho late Hospital enquiry. I have, &c., 0. Mabton Anderson. Tho document above referred to was as follows:

Christchurch, January 6th, 18S1. Sir,“-Wo, the undersigned legally qualified medical men, residing in Chriatchurch Health District, and consequently in duty bound to report cases of infectious disease, having watched with'deep interest the enquiry recently hold at the Christchurch Hospital by Dr. Skae, desire to represent to the Government the grave importance which wo attach to the suppression of typhoid fever. This disease being the one most amenable to sanitary efforts, and likewise the infectious discaao most prevalent throughout Now Zealand, it becomes a matter of the first importance that all cases shonld bo promptly reported to tho Board of Health. The report of tho I‘toyal Commission shows that

Mf.ry Keelley, George Kirkhonse, Archibald McLaren, Mary Bennett, Maggie Malden, and Polly Morns, were admitted to the Christchurch Hospital for fever—typhoid fever—and that no report of their admission was forwarded to the Board of Health, and that Mary Keetley, George Kirkhonse and Archibald McLaren, died of typhoid fever, and the Hospital authorities gave certificates of death from gastro-enteritis an! phrenitis. Wo would respectfully impress upon the Government that the action of the Hospital authorities, in not reporting cases of typhoid fever, has not only imperilled the health of the district, but has rendered the local statistics fallacious ; while their action in giving certificates of death for gastro-enteritis and phrenitis, instead of typhoid_ fever, destroys the accuracy of the vital statistics of the colony, and thereby makes them valueless for the purposes for which they are compiled at great trouble and expense. vVe feel that we are speaking the mind of the large body of the profession thronghout New Zealand when we state that the Hospital Beard, by re-electing tho_ same staff in the face of the Bsyal Commissioner s report, have outraged public decency and professional morality, and we would respectfully urge in the best interests of society and of the profession to which wo belong that Government tjike immediate steps to carry ont to its legitimate ending the verdict of Dr. Skae, We have, &c., Signed—P. Marion Anderson. F. G. M. Erettin, John W. S. Coward, P. Doyle, M.D.j Edward kllis, M.D : J. D. Frankish, M.D.; W. E. Hacon, L.R.C.P-, London; F. E. Hnnt; S. A. Patrick ; Wm. H. Symes, M.D ; James S. Turnbull, M.D.; C B. Bussell, M.D. The Board resolved to acknowledge receipt of the communication. Mr Brown said ho thought they should be careful how they were dragged into any alliance with these doctors, and mentioned that it was said about town that a member of this Board had been going about seeking signatures of medical men to a petition similar in character to the above document. He believed that the Board were being made b. tool of by these doctors to advertise their grievances. After some discussion of a conversational character, the matter dropped. A letter from the town clerk of Christchurch, on behalf of tho City Council, asking for an interview with the Board for the purpose of considering the best means of remedying defects in the present Health Acts. Tho Board decided to reply that they would meet the Council at the offices, Hereford street, on the next day of meeting. The inspector of nuisances reported as follows

December 21st, 1880. The Chairman Local Board of Health. Sir,— I beg to report that I have visited the premises mentioned in a letter from the Sydenham Borough Council, dated the 18th met., occupied by Mr Upjohn, butcher. Lincoln road, and found them generally in a satisfactory condition ; but there is a large quantity of house drainage, including, of course, the water used in cleaning the shop and premises, and there appears to be a great quantity used, for the Upjohna are very clean people. Them is not an artesian overflow on the premises to flash the concrete side channel into which it flows on Station road. The adjoining premises, the Police Depot, also drain into this channel. At the pipes under the footpath at the entrance to the Station road, off the Lincoln road, the drainage is partially stagnant by sediment blocking the culvert that crosses the entrance to the Station road. It then flows towards Christchurch, taking up the drainage from the urinal and the house drainage from Feathers’ Hotel and from Mr Topliss’ premises, and covers in all five or six chains of the channel along the Lincoln road. I am informed, and so it appeared, that for a part of its course tho channel is alternately wet and dry, but is never dry between Mr White’s gate and the hotel. Tho channel is very uneven. The drainage flows a few feet, and fills a hole; the overflow again flows a few feet and fills another hole, and never reaches the sump near the railway except in wet weather. The nuisance is greatest opposite Mr Topliss’ house. Frequent cleansing, the free use of deodorants, and filling with clay the holes in the channel, will obviate tho nuisance; bnt it can only be removed by proper drainage. I have, &0., Wn. Pearce, Inspector of Nuisances. Tho Board decided to refer the matter dealt with by the report to the local authorities in the districts concerned. Mr Hall said he would do all he could to have tho matter remedied by next meeting. A letter was read from Dr. _ Campbell, returning forms for reporting infectious dis eases, and stating that he had no further use for them. Mr Tanored—What does that moan ? The Chairman—Why, that he declines to report cases of infectious disease in future. Mr Brown —lt is not compulsory on medical men. Mr Ross —No j but a great number of them have agreed to do so. Here the matter dropped. A letter from the clerk to the Licensing Court acknowledging receipt of an extract from tho report of Dr. Nedwill re earth closets in hotels, and stating that the matter would be laid before the Licensing Commissioners at their next meeting. The adjourned discussion, on a motion by Mr Hobbs, was resumed. Mr Hobbs moved—“ That the chairman be requested to write to the Hon. 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 Christchurch so long as the members of the late Hospital staff hold office at tho Christchurch Hospital j and, further, that tho Hospital and Charitable Aid Board should have re-elected so many members of tho late medical staff subsequent to tho receipt of tho report of the Royal Commissioner who held the recent inquiry at the Christchurch Hospital.” After some discussion the motion was lost. The Board then adjourned.