Talk of the Week.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 226, 8 January 1876, Page 13

Talk of the Week.

The New Zealand Times was the only Wellington journal that previous to the polling for the Country Districts expressed distinct and definite opinions regarding the merits of the different candidates. Those opinions, though necessarily unpalatable to some were perfectly just, correct, in sympathy with public opinion, and were upheld by public opinion at the ballot boxes. The fair course we pursued enables us all the more cheerfully, and in good intention, to protest against that class of journalism which waited the issue of the election to decide upon the candidate that ought to be supported, and which on Monday in an indecent and unbecoming manner said a great deal in praise of Mr. Brandon, and a great deal in dispraise of Mr. Gillon. We use the terms “indecent” and “ unbecoming ” because we hold that it is both one and the other to wait for the issue of a combat before choosing the side that should be supported, in order that by waiting alliance may be made with the victor. We have no doubt but that had Mr. Gillon headed the poll for the Country Districts we should last evening have been treated to a leader similar to that which appeared, in all respects save one, namely, the placing of his name instead of Mr. Brandon’s for compliment, and the placing of Mr. Brandon’s name instead of his for detraction. It is against this kind of thing that we desire to protest, and at the same time we wish in all kindness to warn those who practise it that they are not taking the proper way to secure public confidence or public support.

The Registrar-General's report on the vital statistics of the boroughs of Auckland, Thames, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Hokitika, during the month of Novembei-, 1875, has been published. There were 299 births and 114 deaths during the month. Of these, there were 66 births and 10 deaths in Welling ton. The highest death-rate was in Auckland, viz., 2'82 per 1000; the lowest at the Thames, 0'60; and the next at Wellington, o'9o. The births were 11 more than in October. The deaths were 15 less in number than the deaths in October. Of the deaths, males contributed 72 ; females, 42. 38 of the deaths were of children under 5 years of age, being 33'33 per cent, of the whole number ; 26 of these were of children under 1 year of age. There were 4 deaths of persons of 65 years of age and over —namely, 3 males and 1 female. The males were aged 85, 83, and 73 ; 2 died at Auckland, 1 in Wellington. The female was 65 years of age ; she died in Auckland. The deaths in November were 114, against 129 in October. Zymotic diseases caused 25 deaths in November, against 16 in October. Of those diseases in November, typhoid fever caused 6 deaths (3 in Auckland and 3 in Christchurch), and dysentery and diarrhraa 9 deaths ; only 7 deaths from the latter causes having occurred in the boroughs previously since May last. The number of deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs was 19 in November, against 22 in October. The violent deaths were 5 in November ; the number (17) in October having been exceptionally large. Of these deaths, one was that of a child, from congestion of the lungs, caused by immersion in water. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against the mother on account thereof. In November, 1874, the deaths from the 7 boroughs amounted to 108. There were then 41 deaths from zymotic diseases, against 25 in November of this year. The large number in November, 1874, was principally owing to the prevalence of measles at the time.

WHEN the first outbreak of scarlet fever was announced in Victoria the New Zealand Times offered advice, and gave warnings in case of a probable communication of the infection to this colony. Being the first warner, and no case of fever having occurred to rouse people to a sense of their danger, the advice and warning of the New Zealand Times was scoffed at by the Dunedin Press, and commended to attention by the West Coast Times. Now that scarlet fever has really occurred in the colony the Dunedin Press has become very loud in its advice as to what ought to have been done, and the Government have published the following precautions against the spread of typhoid fever, drawn up by William Ogle, M.A., M.D., Oxon, F.R.C.P. Bond., Medical Officer of Health for the combined districts of East Herts ; and circulated by the sanitary authorities :—Typhoid, enteric, or gastric fever are names given to one and the same infectious disease, this being a fever produced by excremental poisoning, and almost invariably accompanied by diarrhoea. Of all excremental matter, the most poisonous is that, which comes from persons themselves ill with the fever ; and it is principally by means of their stools that the disease spreads from one person,

to another. The poison may be taken in by breathing the effluvia from these discharges, or from the privy, cesspool, or drains into which they have been emptied ; or by drinking water from wells into which they have soaked; or by swallowing particles that have adhered to clothes, bedding, or other objects, and thence been accidentally transferred to articles of food or cooking utensils. Destruction of the fever poison in the stools, the moment these leave the body, by means of disinfectants, and (inasmuch as the action of disinfectants is not thoroughly certain) the safe disposal of the stools themselves, are the means by which we should try to prevent the disease from spreading. Bet all persons, therefore, who would keep themselves and their neighbors free from infection, observe strictly the following rules should the disease occur in their houses: —1. Remove at once from the sick-room all carpets, curtains, and other objects likely to get fouled. 2. Keep every one whose presence is not absolutely necessai’y out of the sick-room, and by means of open windows and open doors give the patient as much fresh air as possible. 3. Put a piece of waterproof sheeting under the bed clothes, in the middle of the bed, so as to prevent the bed from getting soiled. 4. Put a teacupful of the following disinfecting fluid into a bed-pan or other vessel each time beEore the patient uses it, and add some more immediately after: — Soda water, a gallon; sulphate of iron (i.e., copperas), a pound; carbolic acid (the common impure kind), half a pint. In preparing this fluid the iron should first be dissolved by stirring in boiling water, and the carbolic acid added when the iron is dissolved and the fluid cool. Remember that carbolic acid is a poison; keep the mixture therefore in a safe place. The same fluid may be used with great advantage to disinfect any accumulation of filth, such as a dung-pit or cesspool. As a general rule two quarts will suffice to disinfect one cubic foot of foul matter. 5. Take care that the discharges are thoroughly mixed with the disinfecting fluid, and then carry them immediately into the garden or field, and bury them in a deep trench, previously dug for the purpose, as far as possible from any well or other water supply. On no account let them be thrown on to a refuse heap. If the house be in a town, and without a garden, so that the stools must of necessity be thrown down the closet, add a double allowance of the disinfectant, and take care that the emptying be done without splashing the seat, and that the closet be flushed until basin and pan are thorougly clean. 6. Bet bed and body linen, immediately it is taken off, be put into a tub of water, to which carbolic acid has been added, in the proportion of half a pint of acid to a bucket of water. Have the tub and fluid ready prepared and at hand before the linen is taken off. Bet the linen soak in this for two hours, and then let it be actually boiled in washing. On no account must the linen be sent to a laundress without thorough previous disinfection, nor without informing her of its character, so that she may not wash it with the linen of other persons. 7. Bet the nurse observe the most scrupulous care to keep everything clean. Bet her wear a dress of washing material, as this is more easily disinfected than wool. As her hands almost unavoidably get soiled in helping the patient, let her wash them frequently in water to which some disinfecting fluid has been added, and let her take care that the water thus used, as well as all other slops, be emptied carefully into the garden trench.. 8. When the illness is over, the bed, if soiled, should be burnt ; or the tick or sacking cover may be disinfected by thorough boiling, and the flock or straw stuffing burnt. Should there be a disinfecting oven available, the stuffing of hair mattrasses may be teased out and then disinfected by baking at a temperature of 250° E. Otherwise this also should be destroyed. The floor of the sick room and the bedstead and other furniture should be thoroughly scrubbed with soft soap and carbolic acid. All the implements and utensils that have been in use in the sick room should be well scalded. The dress worn by the nurse should be disinfected with carbolic acid and boiled as directed in the sixth paragraph. 9. If fever be in your neighborhood, but not as yet in your house, take the following precautions to keep it out : Drink no water that is open to the least suspicion, or, if you can get no other, boil it before drinking. Use no closet or privy that is used by houses in which there is already fever. Give immediate notice to the Sanitary Inspector of any nuisance in your neighborhood, such as a stinking drain or gully, heaps of offensive refuse, and the like. Use all your influence to • insist upon the preceding precautions being strictly carried out by your neighbors whose houses are already infected.

A somewhat singular telegram appeared in the newspapers the other day, as follows : “ The famous cruiser Shenandoah has visited San Erancisco. There was talk of (adopting ?) Captain Waddell on account of former depredation of ’Erisco merchants.” The explanation of this is furnished by American files to hand. It seems that Captain Waddell, at one time in command of the well-known Confederate cruiser Shenandoah, was appointed to the command of the s.s. City of San Erancisco, of the Pacific Mail Company, which has recently arrived in the colonies to take up her running in the mail service via America. An outcry was raised against Captain Waddell, and he was deposed from his command, which was given to a Captain Bachlan. On this the well-known News Letter remarks :—“ The excitement that has been gotten up in this city, and which has driven Captain Waddell from the command of the City of San Erancisco, has been most discreditable, and, if we are not mistaken, will tend greatly to prejudice the line in the eyes of those who, paying its whole cost, are entitled to an almost exclusive say in regard to its managemant. The fact seems to have been entirely overlooked here that the line is owned principally in England ; that a portion of the ships that run it are English ships; that every dime the line costs is paid by the colonies, and that its passenger and freight business is almost

exclusively colonial. Yet a very few noisy and corruptly interested politicians, backed, we are sorry to say, by a portion of the Press of San Erancisco, have howled at her commander with the ferocity of war times. ExSenator Cole has placed himself at the head of these, and, though but a layman, lie thinks it no shame to step from the United States Senate and become a ‘ couusel for clients ’ who are pressing good, bad, and indifferent claims against what is known as the ‘Alabama Fund.’ This person has several axes to grind, and to do the grinding more successfully has done his level best to stir up feelings that every one had hoped were dead. It is a strange coincidence that at a time when the press of the whole nation is lauding the speech of Congressman Bamar (a leader of the Southern public opinion) as one of admirable temper and coneilliation, and the whole people are rejoicing at the era of good feeling which prevails, that Captain Waddell should be met as he has been in California. Mr. Cole may try to stir up smoke enough to hide his own troubles, but the endeavor will not benefit him. So sure as the night follows the day, he will have to tell more than has yet been dragged from him about the .SIOO,OOO paid by the Pacific Mail Company in regard to its last subsidy, and which was traced so close to his breeches’ pocket. Then, again, we can well understand why he objects to a man. of so much spirit and honor as Captain Waddell possesses having a command in the South Pacific. That Samoan Island outrage would be in danger of an exposure, and Mr. Cole’s corrupt connection with it might come to light. As distinctly as words can convey our meaning, we charge that he received shares (which for his convenience were issued in the name of another) in that affair, for and in consideration of services to be performed by him at Washington, he being at the time United States Senator. The whole of that story will be told this winter to a Congressional committee, and when it all comes out it will be found that outrages of the most damnable character have been pei-petrated, of which the people of this country know nothing. It is a matter susceptible of proof that muskets were sent to the Samoan group whilst the natives were engaged in a tribal war, and sold to both sides at the price of 640 acres of land for one musket. A butchery ensued that beggars description. A man like Waddell might describe it, who knows ? Cole trembles at the thought ! Then, as we have before pointed out, it is AngloAustralians who are concerned in regard to this mail service, and they being content with Captain Waddell, who else has a right to complain ? They pay the money which reaches him, and they are just the kind of people to resent interference with that which is their’s. To them we are indebted for communication with our friends of Hawaii. To their enterprise we owe it that we are getting a share of the Australian and New Zealand trade, and to them we are indebted for the admirable example of international good feeling exhibited in their employing our ships and carrying our letters at half postage rates. The last American line to Australia put a common hangman on board as commander. Sir George Bowen, Governor at Melbourne, Sir Julius Vogel, Premier of New Zealand, and other prominent men, who are passengers by the City of San Erancisco, would certainly not have regretted the change which gave them an officer disguished for his urbanity, scholarly training, and gentlemanly bearing. That the Pacific Mail Company should have been weak enough to depose Captain Waddell will not help it in the colonies.”

The Mayor on Thursday made an explanation respecting his share in the refusal to supply the Press with a copy of the auditors’ report. In effect he said that at so early a period of his Mayoralty he did not like to exercise his authority. He admitted his fault, but the tone of his remarks as regards the future will not be without effect, and thus the object of the Press is gained. Just one word must be taken exception to. The reporters never asked for a “peremptory” order to the Town Clerk; they found the inferior officer opposing the wishes of his superior, and this unusual circumstance led them to inquire who should obey and who should be obeyed, but when they found the Mayor willing to give way to the Town Clerk they asked for no “ peremptory ” order.

The Thames election has resulted in the return of Sir George Grey and Mr. Wm. Rowe, the other candidates having apparently retired except Sir Julius Vogel, who was put in nomination without the knowledge or consent of the Government, who had decided that he should sit for Wanganui, if elected. The fact that he polled 682 votes is remarkable under the circumstances, and taken in conjunction with the return of the Ministerial candidate, Mr. Rowe, must be regarded as an endorsation, by the Thames constituency, of the Government policy. At all events, it speaks volumes for the appreciation in which Sir Julius is held at the Thames, where he has been for years subjected to the utmost possible detraction by a portion of the local Press.

On the second day of the Wairarapa races, Korari was beaten easily by Fishhook, an occurrence which created the greatest surprise in Wellington, for manifestly at the “big” meeting, Fishhook could not race Korari on any terms. However, the beating was attributed to Korari having bolted, and no more was thought of the matter. But according to the Wairarapa Standard, there are very strong reasons for supposing that another of those swindles which occasionally scandalise the turf has been perpetrated, and we republish elsewhere what the local paper says on the subject. At present we withhold any comments. We regard Mr. Redwood as an honorable sportsman. His conduct for years proves that, and we are confirmed in the opinion by circumstances which took place at the Wellington meeting in connection with this very horse. Yet, if an owner be incapable of acting as a blackleg,

frequently his trainers and jockeys are the reverse, and he is responsible for their acts if he condone. It is his duty to make a searching inquiry into the circumstances, and punish the offender if anything “crooked” has been going on. So far as we know, Mr. Redwood has not done this, and it is now the duty of the stewards of the Wairarapa race meeting to bestir themselves. They have accepted the honor of office, and the public for whom they act and are supposed to protect, demand that they shall do their duty and vindicate the purity and honesty of the turf, so far as it lies in their power to do so. In another column will be found a letter on the subject of the wharf lessee’s application for an extended period. Our correspondent will see that so far the City Council has resolved on taking over the control of the wharf and not re-letting- it, but are favorable to giving the couple of months extension to the lessee. That does not, however, take away from the force of our correspondent’s remarks. Ror many reasons the two months asked for will be about the most profitable period of the whole year, and of this the Council should take advantage in the interests of the ratepayers.

Mr. Fitzherbekt would have acted with judgment and good taste if, on the official declaration of the poll for the ITutt, he had confined himself to simply thanking the electors, and had not, when the contest had terminated, gone out of his way to insult his opponent, and indulge •in personalities. Even had Mr. Hutchison during his candidature offended ever so much whilst speaking of Mr. Eitzherbert, that gentleman would have done more credit to those who supported him (and we were amongst the number) by showing the magnanimity which best becomes a conqueror, and been contented with his victory, without showing that he was incapable of forgiving a defeated adversary. But, as a matter of fact, however many objectionable things Mr. Hutchison may have said during his candidature, he said nothing to deserve Mr. Fitzlierbert’s excessively vulgar reference, which will be found in our report, and which we shall not reproduce here. It was only worthy of that class of repartee which prevails amongst tipsy frequenters of a grog shanty. It is true that Goliah asked that “ a man ” should be sent to fight against him, but even that will not make Mr. Eitzherbert’s coarse remark by inuendo justifiable, gentlemanly, or worthy of Eitzherbert. Councillor Pharazyn desires the Mayor of Wellington to work for nothing. Surely he must mistake the character of Mr. Hutchison. Hoes he suppose that all men are blest with the liberal open-handed spirit which throws so bright a halo of respect and popularity around the Hon. C. J. Pharazyn ? It is unreasonable to expect it. Mr. Pharazyn is a man in a thousand. It would be impossible to estimate his character for liberality by recording the numerous generous acts for which he is celebrated. He must be judged in a negative manner; not merely by what good deeds he does, but by a reference to the mean acts he would not be guilty of. For instance, Mr. Pharazyn would not draw upwards of £IOO for sitting about thirty hours a year in the Eegislative Council Chamber and doing nothing. He would not accept the money, knowing the “financial position of the colony.” He would not insult the citizens by accepting a seat at the Council Board conditionally that it cost him nothing ; and when he got there he would not use his position and influence to back up a flimsy pretext for escaping a fair share of the cost of governing the city, and throwing additional burdens onhispoorer fellowcitizens. These are some of the things the honorable C. J. Pharazyn would not do, therefore it is easy to judge that the nobility of his mind would tempt him to grudge a paltry £2OO to a man who has all the work and pecuniary responsibilities of the chief magistrate of a city on his shoulders for twelve months. The Council should unanimously accept his proposition, and place on record a special vote of thanks to him.