South Canterbury Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2609, 1 August 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 1881.

The Public Health Act of this colony appears to be a very defective measure. It certainly does not fully provide for the objects which it was intended to serve. Our readers arc already aware that several deaths occurred in Christchurch recently from typhoid fever, and that the original cause was directly traceable to the milk supplied from a dairy on the Lincoln road. Further enquiries were instituted, and it was found that nearly all the cases of typhoid in Christchurch were traceable to the same source. There was not the slightest doubt as to the origin. And yet the local Board of Health are powerless to deal with the matter. In fact, they cannot prevent a single-pint of milk leaving the dairy. To do so they would have to prove that the milk was unfit for human consumption. Now, it may bo fully laden with the germs of typhoid fever, and the most exhaustive analysis would fail to detect the slightest element of danger. The Christchurch Board of Health petitioned the Government to have the Act amended, and the pert Mr John Hall has informed the Board that the Government do not intend to move in the matter —that the provisions of the Act are already sufficient to protect the public health. So the people of the colony are to remain unprotected in a most dangerous direction from an infectious and deadly malady. There would surely be no objection to the amendment of the Act so as to make its provisions as clear and explicit as possible. Delay means death, and scores of people may be swept into their graves whilst Boards of Health and the Ministry are squabbling over the interpretation of the Act. It is monstrous to think that the Government should be so indifferent in such a vital matter. It would be the easiest thing in the world to remove all doubt whatever. The Christchurch authorities do not stand alone in their ideas of the inadequate nature of the Public Health Act. A telegram received from Auckland states that the Superintendent of Police there has reported to the City Council that it is his belief that a conviction for dirty and ill-drained dairies could not be obtained under the Health Act. A wretched muddle indeed. People do not care two straws as to whether the Government or the Health Officers are right in the interpretation of the law. A commonsense view should be taken of the matter. If there is any difficulty, that difficulty should be removed. It is the local authorities who are entrusted with the carrying out of the Public Health Act. It is indispensably necessary that they should be fully assured before taking any decisive step in regard to dairies that they would be acting within the law. Mr Hall has given it as his opinion that the local authorities have already full power to deal with the matter, but they would much prefer seeing it in black and white in an Act of Parliament. It is quite probable that a Resident Magistrate would interpret the law differently to the Premier, utterly regardless of the conceit of the latter, even though he were backed by the opinion of the Attornoy-Goneral, We feel assured that there have been hundreds of deaths in this colony from typhoid fever, the germs of which have been conveyed by the milk-can. People may be as cleanly as possible in their domestic arrangements and in the surroundings of their dwellings, but their efforts to preserve health may at any moment be frustrated by the carelessness or uncleanliness of those from whom they obtain their milk. As was the case in Christchurch the other day, a dairyman may have typhoid fever in his family, and may spread that disease in all directions, and the Act will not touch him, A Government who had any regard for the welfare of the community would lose no time in having such a flagrant defect in the law remedied.