The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 207, 2 November 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1866.

The Melbourne Centi_l Board of Health have felt it necessary to give a warning to the public, respecting the probable appearance of cholera, if not during the present season, at no distant date. They say there is cause for alarm in the fact, that the disease has been very prevalent in those parts of England and Europe which are connected, by commerce, with the colonies. There is also < reason to fear, tjbat in consequence of the great increase of the population of Calcutta, ] owing to the famine and misery prevailing in India, an outbreak in that city is nearly certain to occur. By the progress report of the British Cholera Commissioners, as well as by the memorandum of the medical officer of the Privy Council, dated 24th July, 1866, it appears to be clearly admitted that cholera is a strictly contagious disease, and that a single case of the malady introduced into a place may, if local circumstances co-operate, exert a terribly infective power on considerable masses of the population. ' If local circumstances co-operate, however, is the stated condition of the possibility. These local circumstances abound in "almost every town in Australia, and especially in those seaboard towns where the disease is most likely to be introduced. The Melbourne Central Board of Health, having thus warned the population of the approaching danger, call the attention of the various local boards, and of the people of the colony generally, to those sanitary evils in the presence of which alone cholera ' can exist, every one of which is removable, and the longer tolerance of which, after these - reiterated warnings, will entail on those who neglect them, no less a responsibility than the lives of their fellow beings. Those who know anything of the history of cholera need not be informed that coming originally from India, in 1830 it found its : way to Russia, through Persia and Turkey, and in 1832 devasted the dirtiest portion of the large towns in England and France. Since then it has periodically visited the large cities of Europe, where its desolating effects have been in exact proportion to the materials it has found to work upon among the population who suffered the accumulated miseries of bad food, deficient ventilation, impure water, and imperfect drainage. Among the dense population of overcrowded cities, where human beings live amidst an accumulation of foetid sewers and poisonous cesspools, death has never failed to keep his court and reign with terrific sway when the "local circumstances" have predisposed the unfortunate multitude to sink beneath the attack of the devouriug pestilence. Melbourne is perhaps one of the worst-drained cities in the colonies, and but for the fact that the bulk- of the population manage to sleep in the suburbs by night, it would long ere this have suffered for its gross violation ' Of the sanitary laws. ' The hot winds of Aus-' tralia destroy the masses of decomposed animal and vegetable refuse that would otherwise be a fertile source of cholera and typhus, but the city is nevertheless exposed to danger from the mass of poisonous matter which runs beneath the houses, vitiating the air and sowing the seeds of numerous diseases* No wonder then that the medical profession have' sounded the alarm, and that the Government are oh the alert to devise and enforce preventive measures, such as the securing of a supply of pure water, the removal of refuse; the' i disinfection olf, "drains, and -he adoptioii of ' any other remedies which human sagacity

i&ay jiroh_pt,; and "which may be calculated to neutralise the " local circumstances." *; . - If r the Australian cities v are • exposed to danger from communicating with those places where cholera abounds, the, cities of New Zealand"are by no means' exempt, since the intercourse with Pahama: has rendered them liable to receive the disease from those parts of America, in which it now prevails. The climate of"New Zealand and the sparseness ofits population are much in its favor, and the ravages of cholera would not be so extensive, if it appeared amongst us, as in those towns where the people live as thick together as leaves in autumn, and where an almost tropical heat-favors, in connection with other causesj the progress of disease. What applies to Australia, however, applies to some extent to New Zealand, in reference to the necessity of a strict adherence to the laws of health. Dunedin, in the early days of the Otago Gold-fields^ may be cited as a case in point. The avarice of land owners had induced them to erect the greatest possible number of buildings on every available spot of land. In these the population were huddled together like pigs in a stye, in total disregard of the cohditiohs of health, to infringe which is to invite' disease and death. The result was, the decimation of the juvenile portion of the population especially, by fevers of' various kinds, and the stern interference of the authorities was needed to enforce cleanliness amongst a people who seemed to be unable or unwilling, to think of the fearful penalties to which they-exposed themselves by their flagrant transgression of the most obvious sanitary laws. As Nelson increases in numbers, and the 'population are crowded more closely on the ground; the same effects will be experienced here unless care be taken to remove the cause. It would not be difficult for a person taking a walk around the town to find a contempt shown for the laws of health, in many places, as great as is charged upon our Australian neighbors. The ninety stinks of Cologne are frequently reproduced in our nice little town, to the imminent danger of the public health, and with a view it would appear, to invite the co-operation of any disease which may think fit to change its locale from Hindostan or America to NelsoD. An Inspector ol Nuisances has been appointed recently, and his office will /be. no sinecure, if he unflinchingly do his duty. It would be much better however, for every householder to become'his own inspector, and by attending to the laws which are so plainly written that no well disposed, person can misinterpret them, remove the causes of disease which his observation and ; experience cannot fail to place before him.