Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1900. The Plague.

Manawatu Herald, 26 April 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1900. The Plague.

♦ . . - j We regret that we have not had an opportunity of congratulating the Borough Council on having taken some decisive action to secure the thorough cleanliness of the town. A very heavy responsibility lies upon the shoulders of the Mayor and Councillors, and great will be their regret if the plague visits this coast. We believe Foxton is as clean as most towns, and we will say that it is cleaner if it is likely to please any one, but that does not say that there are spots that do not need cleaning up. The Council has had a waraiu^. by the last report of the Inspector of Nuisances who reported on, what he termed plague spots, and if he, as he says he did, overlook these on a prior inspection, there can be no safety for the ratepayers until the house-to-house visit, as ordered by the Council, has been made. Seeing that at the principal ports of the colony great efforts are being made to cleanse the towns and destroy the rats, we had hoped the Council would have j understood the need of promptness being displayed, but we find that 1 they are content to wait until their usual meeting for this important report from their Inspector. Something might, however, be done at once about the destruction of rats, a pest we are undoubtedly suffering from, and the Borough authorities should secure poison to be distributed to those who are safe to be entrusted with its use. We have, before now, drawn attention to the need of cheap disinfectants being obtainable, the liberal use of which will be of the utmost service, but we find nothing even in this direction has been attempted. In face of all this is it surprising that the Government propose to ignore all local authorities and act for them? Some people imagine this will be better and that they thus will escape the expense. They need not lay that flattering unction to their soul as the Government do not, as a rule, do anything for nothing, so that one day the rate-

i payers will discover that what theii* representatives on the Borough Council have been urged to do, and who would do it with the care of expense which is the feature of their ordinary actions, being done by the Government, in their own manner but at the cost of the ratepayers. For our own part we think it would be less costly if Council really entered into this pressing and necessary work on their own account, but further delay in doing so will probably cause a similar action being taken to that which was taken in Feilding, where the ratepayers asked the Government to send a qualified person up. Anything which will cause action to be taken is far away better than the present dawdling, and if the Council cannot see their way to act in a question which may bring them into opposition to some of the ratepayers we would suggest that they relinquish their authority to the Government and inform them of their so so doing. The Government expect the local bodies to act and believe they are doing something and should therefore be advised if they do not intend to do anything.