South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, DEC. 4, 1879.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2091, 4 December 1879, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, DEC. 4, 1879.

It is promised that the question of providing suitable quarters for his Excellency the Governor in Christchurch and Dunedin is to receive the attention of Government and the Legislature. We have no particular objection to the erection of palatial structures at the public cost, provided the distribution of those costly trifles is carried out on a fair and equitable basis. But if His Excellency is to be provided with summer or winter residences at Christchurch and Duuediu, we should like to know what Timaru has done that it should be overlooked. It is true that, unlike Christchurch, we cannot boast of vast shingle beds, artesian wells,

impure water,’ a rotation of scarlet, typhoid, and other malignant fever crops arising from a defective sanitary system, and a surrounding country as level as a pancake —so level that nothing short of r .a balloon-ascent will give an extended view. Neither do we possess like Dunedin, the advantage of a hazy atmosphere, and a favorite mud-pool lying like a basin at the feet of the city In"which all the filth of the community is deposited. But if Timaru has not these advantages it has corresponding chafihs in its clean streets, its efficient' sewers, and, more than all, its pure atmosphere. If residences for His Excellency, of a character suitable for vice-regal accommodation, are to be erected in the Middle Island, is it not desirable that the safety and personal comfort of the intended occupants should have some slight consideration. We presume that when the gentleman who represents the Crown in this colony gets rid of the noxious vapors of badlydrained Wellington he is entitled to something more salubrious than a mere change of fever-breeding sewer-manu-factured city effluvia. An occasional visit to Dunedin or Christchurch in fine weather, when the vital statistics are favorable to'longevity, would be unobjectionable, but to compel his Excellency to rush out of one danger into another, by testing periodically the poisonous atmospheres of dcfectivcl}--sewered cities would, we humbly submit, partake of the nature of cruelty to animals. The present Governor —Sir Hercules Robinson—may possess an excellent constitution, and his physical vigor, after the training it has undergone in the vicinity of the gigantic cesspool, designated the Sydney harbor, may be superior to the evil inllucnccs of city gases, but the office which Sir Hercules holds is a rolling one. A verdict of “ Died from the effects of city residences,” attached to some less robust departed Governor of the future, would not bo calculated to prepossess either Wellington, Christchurch, or Dunedin, in thb estimation of Colonial or Home readers. If His Excellent is to be asked to divide his time and attention between the two islands, a central and salubrious part of the Middle Island ought to be chosen, so that when he 'escapes the aroma of the Wellington underground sewers he may be able to brace his constitution with some whiffs of a pure unadulterated atmosphere. This he may find in Timaru, but we defy him to discover it in the purlieus of the larger centres. In addition to the important matter of salubrity, Timaru has the advantage of being centrally situated between Christchurch and Dunedin, and being within a few hours ride of either city, so that His Excellency when here would have no difficulty at any time in paying a flying visit to either of these places. A large amount of local jealousy would thus be obviated, while the Colony would be saved the expense of erecting two viceregal residences instead of one, which in these times of severe indebtedness and heavy taxation is an important ; consideration.