A DEADLY WATER SUPPLY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 873, 1 February 1879, Page 2

A DEADLY WATER SUPPLY.

(KKOM "l : R OWN ooKKKsPONIIBNT.] Wellington, January 21. The Post has recently contained a number of articles on the water supply, founded on a microscopic analysis hy Dr. Hector, showing diarrhoea ova, worms, and other gross impurities to exist in the water supplied from the reservoir. The object of the articles was to force upon the City Council the necessity for filter beds. As they had not the desired result;, the Post's reporter yesterday and to-day visited all the medical men in the town, and their opinions, occupying two columns of this evening's issue, without exception all trace the frightful amount of contagious diseases now prevalent more or less to the water supply, some going further than others. The majority agrei that even infants suckling at the breast are not free from danger, as diarrhoea, typhoid, or worms can be conveyed through the mother's milk. Dr. Diver and others stated that nine out of every ten children in Wellington suffered from worms, death frequently occurring through the animals eating their way into the intestines. The Mayor's youngest daughter, who died yesterday, was killed by worms. In an adjoining column of the paper is a death rate showing the largest number o5 deaths ever registered in Wellington ii >ne month. Nearly all these are due t< /.vmotic diseases, 33 being those of chi!-h-en under one year old, all fro is diarrhoea. The City Engineer states tha the distributing basin is full of eeh which get into the mains and there dit either owing to the rapid rush of tinwater or the absence of food. Two houst pipes, nearly blocked, were opened, and the cause was found to be dead eels. The water-shed of the reservoir is used as a grazing ground, and the basin itself as a drinking pond by cattle. The article hacaused a great sensation in town.