South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, JAN. 17, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2127, 16 January 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, JAN. 17, 1880.

Wk were under the impression that sanitary matters were tolerably well attended to in Timaru, but the experiences of the past day or two has effectually removed it. Through the absence of one of the most useful adjuncts to decent centres of population, the vicinity of a first-class hotel in the very centre of the town has been temporarily converted into a veritable plague spot. The circumstances connected with the inquest which took place yesterday afternoon arc such as to warrant something - more than a mere passing reference. Through one of these accidents that will sometimes happen in the best-regidated families, the body of a lodger who has purchased a passagewarrant from an obliging chemist to “ the bourne from whence no traveller returns,” remains in the close, confined atmosphere of a bedroom for upwards of forty-eight hours. The weather is extremely sultry, and decomposition sets in rapidly. Yet, for reasons which we think require explanation, a human body in process of putrefaction is allowed to linger for over forty-eight hours on the premises of a tradesman who is compelled by law to provide for the accommodation and refreshment of the living, and whose premises, where men are intended to be lodged and fed, have certainly no right to be converted into a mortuary. The facts of the case were known to the police long before daylight, and the evidence as to the cause of the death was so palpable that there was but little to investigate, yet for some unexplained reason the inquest does not commence till 4 o’clock in the afternoon. By that time the smell is so rank and offensive that the coroner and his jury find themselves compelled to abandon their intention of holding the enquiry in the hotel

where the body is lying, and they adjourn to a house on the opposite side of the street. In the meantime, the post mortem takes, place, a well furnished and excellently conducted hotel is constructed into a veritable morgue, the premises are depopulated save by the landlord, his family and servants, the business ot the house is practically suspended, and the red-tape process of finding a verdict, filling up documents, instructing the undertaker, and issuing the necessary burial certificate, goes slowly and methodically on.

The mischief in this instance is not confined to the tradesman whose business has been damaged. An injury has been done to the whole community. Through a want of promptitude and an absence of precaution w’hich seem almost unaccountable, the health of the community has been seriously endangered. Necessary evils, such as defective drains and stagnant sewers are bad enough, but to have the atmosphere made abominable with human flesh in an advanced stage of decomposition, is something intolerable. If the Licensed Victualler’s Association is not positively defunct, an abuse of this kind should have its best and immediate attention. The case of the victim of red tape who has bad his house and his business temporarily ruined, is liable at any moment to be the case of any hotel-keeper in Canterbury. We do not like to be constantly applying whip and spurs to the authorities, but we think they should he called upon to explain away their unreasonable dilatoriness in this affair. Why was a putrescent human body allowed to remain for a whole day and night on premises kept for the refreshment and accommodation of the public V Why was nothing done to prevent the business of a heavy local taxpayer being partially ruined ? If those concerned in this transaction could he held pecuniarily liable for the damage done to the individual and the community by their drowsiness would this delay have occurred ? We venture to think it would not. There would have been no polluting of the atmosphere of an hotel by putrescent human remains. The enquiry would have been held expeditiously, and the offensive matter would have been quickly placed beyond the reach of the public nostrils. In a case of this kind, the blame should be sheeted home to the culpable parties. A plague has been risked, the public health has been imperilled, a tradesman has been cruelly wronged — wronged in a way that hardly admits of ordinary compensation —and the responsibility must be brought home to the authors. If this is not done the ■wrong may be repeated, and a deadly epidemic may at any time be generated. It is clearly the duty of the Municipal authorities to take this subject up and see that ample precautions are taken against future risk. If a public morgue in a central position is not established, an enquiry should be made and steps taken to prevent individual wrong and public disaster being inflicted through culpable and reprehensible slovenliness. The question of -water supply and sewerage fades into insignificance alongside of a matter so important as this—a matter which we submit shows a most disgraceful want of promptitude and ordinary tact on the part of the responsible authorities. Bad water and defective sewers we can put up with, but to have a place of public resort and entertaina public morgue, is more than,either the ment converted for a day and a night into community or the victim in the case can be expected to submit to without powerful remonstrance.