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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 2 October 1880, Page 2

I Dr. de Lautook, as might be expected. S from a gentleman of his profession, made a speech in the Borough Council last | evening having a strong bearing upon the | health of the town. He commented on i the unadvisedness of encouraging a system of • cesspools. He said the prevalence of cesspools tended to augment the number of deaths from malarious, diseases, and that there were a large, □umber of these in Oaroaru. He, referred to several other countries where earth closets had betn used, and remarked, that in Manchester and other English towns where fevers were once highly prevalent under the cesspool system, great; benefits had accrued from the substitution of earth slopetg, JJe expatiated on the

fact that here it was a common thing to. see pretty plans prepared for building hotels without any provision for sewage, and on the frequent casting'of slop-water-on the ground, and said that soap-suds, &c., might be through a pipe with impunity; w'-J long as no particles of sewage matter were sent through. Sewage : water might percolate to a depth of loft, and come out pure and tasteless, hut still the g6rms of typhoid fever might be present; He referred. to the face of cesspools being dug in one place after another, as they became filled up, and said such a proceeding was disastrous to public health. The remarks of Dr. de Eautour, as the Mayor afterwards said, were of importance and deserved careful consideration. His remarks once more bring to the front the necessity for a thorough system of drainage. The carrying out of such a work cannot, of course, be faced at present, but it will have to be faced erelong. In the meantime the statements of Dr. de Lautour should be carefully weighed by the citizens, and such steps taken as will mitigate the evils to which he drew attention in his public capacity as a member of the Council. '