CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 105, 3 May 1875, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

* We are desirous of affording' every reasonable facility for the discussion of public subjects; but it must be understood that we are in no way responsible for the opinions expressed by correspondents. To the Editor of the • Evening Mail.' Sir— Although the 20th clause of the Public Health Act will come into operation on the Ist of Juno, there do not appear to be any preparations made for carrying it out. In the year 1867 a Sanitary Commission was appointed in Nelson to enquire into the relative benefits or defects of earth and water closets, and, after a full and searching investigation, the conclusion arrived at was that the earth closet system was the proper one for Nelson. If I remember right plans were drawn for carrying this out, and all details were entered into, but, Nelson-like, it was allowed to drop there, and nothing more has been done. As the Act states that there shall either be earth closets or water closets opening into a main drain or sewer, many people, I presume, calculate on having closets opening into Hardy, Nile, or Waimeastreet drains, but if such is allowed the danger to health will be great. In other towns every care is taken to prevent the sewage gas from being breathed; in Nelson the reverse is likely to be the case; for if water - closets are permitted to be opened into drains, formed only for carrying off surface water, every grating will allow of the escape of gas into the open air, and may become a nucleus for fever. There are at present few closets opening into the drains besides those at the depot (which is nearly empty) still the stench from the drains now id unbearable. What will it be if all the houses in the drained streets have water-closets? Ten years ago dysentery and low fever (typhoid) were very common, the drinking water at that time being from wells, many of them, no doubt, contaminated by adjacent privies. On the town "being supplied with Brcok-atreet Valley water, dysentery almost immediately disappeared, and from being a very common disease in Nelson, it has become, comparatively speaking, a rare one. The typhoid fever still continues, and nothing yet has been done to prevent if. Oa the contrary we appear to court it, and to try hard to make Nelson ihe most unhealthy town in the colony. Nelsou's chief recommendation is the stlubrity of her climate, and consequently every attention ought to be paid to hygiene, so making our town to this colony what Brightou, Scarborough, or Veritnor are to England. Many of tho immigrants have been laid up with typhoid fever, and it has been argued that this proved that they were not healthy. There are many people who are ia the habit of taking large doses of poison, without any apparent injury to themselves — opium smokers and drinkers, or arsenic eater*, fj.r example — but if we attempted to take a dose not a tithe of the strength they are accustomed to take daily the effects to us would very likely prove fatal. So wi'h the inhabitants of Nelscn. We have gradually accustomed ourselves to inhaling so much poisonous air that unless we happen to bo a little under tone, or have, if I may use the term, a larger dose, no appreciable effect is made on us, whereas a stranger who has been living in a healthy district is very likely to be attacked by fever at once.— l am, &c, -...')' William W. Squires.

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