South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2461, 7 February 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1881.

Those guardians of the public health —the Sanitary Inspectors—who are in the habit of paying an annual visit to the boroughs of New Zealand, are at present making their rounds, and thanks to a favorable season, they are displaying an unwonted degree of activity. We do not refer to the officers who ought to be appointed by every corporate body that sets a value on the public health, but to the selfappointed officials who do their work cheaply, expeditiously, and effectually. Inspectors Typhoid, Scarlatina, and the other representatives of the infectious gang perform their important functions without leave or license, and without entailing any infliction on the ratepayer, who is lucky enough to escape their visits. When the|weather is warm, and the atmosphere humid, they improve the shining hour by distilling poison from the aroma of neglected, undrained yards, and retailing it through various channels to the population. The present season promises to be unusually prolific as regardn these visitations. The inspectors with their noiseless tread have been dealing destruction in the township of Ashburton where eleven deaths have occurred within a fortnight. In Timaru frith in the past week or two typhoid fever and scarlatina have presented an appearance, and sickness is spreading

rapidly. Need we say that the lives of the population—especially the younger and more susceptible —are imperilled. The inevitable inspectors who live on the decomposing matter of back yards, rubbish heaps, stagnant ditches, and underground sewers, have signalised their presence, and it is for the ratepayers to say whether they will invite them to the bosoms of their families or not.

Our object in directing attention to these advance agents of the doctor and undertaker, is to impress on those who would escape the unwelcome intruder, ths necessity of exercising strict cleanliness and employing freely the numerous deodorisers that nature supplies. It is the custom, when sickness is prevalent, to call down all kinds of maledictions on the sanitary authorities. This, we fear, is but a stupid way of shifting individual responsibility on to representative shoulders. The Borough Council is doubtless to blame if it neglects to exercise a reasonable amount of supervision over public works of a sanitary character, but the most dangerous of all nuisances are the domestic filth repositories which arc generally concealed from view, and over which no sanitary Board, however industrious, can exercise a proper control. If epidemics are to be kept at arms length the family domicile and its surroundings must receive attention. We believe wc are not exaggerating matters as they stand when we say that one half of the back yards of Timaru, at this moment, are in a most favorable condition for the spread and propagation of pestilence. The want of drainage and the absence as yet of a public water supply, are unavoidable disabilities, but even these drawbacks might be mitigated. How often are decomposing rubbish heaps buried barely beneath the surface of the soil, in order to escape the paltry fee of the town scavenger ! How many back yards with their little plots are little better than hot-beds for the propagation of malaria ! Hoes it occur to those who adopt these means of hiding an obvious danger, that they are running an extreme risk ? Are they aware that they are imperilling their own lives and the lives of their families as well as ol the community ? If they only reflected on their folly, and traced disease to its cause, they would perceive that after all they are adopting a course that is penny wise and pound foolish. By evading the scavenger they admit the doctor and the sexton, and the penalty paid for neglect is a severe one.

Timaru is favorably situated as regards drainage. It ought to be one of the most cleanly and salubrious towns in New Zealand. Compared with the townships of the plains, from Ashburton to Christchurch, it enjoys the position of a sanatorium where health in the highest degree should be the priceless fortune of every inhabitant. It has facilities for sea-bathing such as the residents of larger cities would be delighted with. Dunedin, with its bay, has no such advantages, for the reason that the basin in which its early inhabitants were wont to immerse themselves has been converted into a disgusting cesspool—a general receptacle for the city sewerage. But if Timaru, with its natural advantages, is to have a moderate immunity from sickness—if its death rate is to be made to compare favorably with that of other districts—the people generally must cultivate habits of cleanliness and patronise the scavenger. The broom and the shovel —the sweeping out of back yards periodically—are the best and cheapest of all deodorisers or disinfectants. It is no use covering over waste material in the hope that infection will be warded off. When Inspectors Typhoid and Scarletina travel round they use their nostrils and they are not to be deceived, like ordinary borough officers, by a few inches of soil. Perhaps the few words of warning we have given will have a salutary effect on some of those whose neglect of sanitary precautions has rendered their establishments peculiarly eligible for the intrusion of these active natural rangers. If not, if no proper precautions are taken, after the facts we hare mentioned, then should sickness and its lamentable consequences overtake those who are near and dear to them, they will have some difficulty, we imagine, in compounding with their consciences.