The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1919. PUBLIC HEALTH REFORM.

Taihape Daily Times, 13 January 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1919. PUBLIC HEALTH REFORM.

(With which is incorporated The Taibape Poet t.nd Waleamo News),

Next in importance to having population is the health of that population. It has been very closely and undeniably demonstrated to all New Zealanders that infestious diseases find congenial surroundings for growth and spread in closely populated areas land in overcrowded habitations,, be they tents, houses, sheds, or hovels. Of course, if such diseases were confined in their attack to overcrowded places it would be an easy matter to stamp them out by dispersing the people, but bitter experience has taught that overcrowded, and consequently insanitary, places are merely hotbeds for the propagation of the deadly baccili, and that these seeds of death find their way either by human carriers, or by other very effectual moans into the furthest away backblocks and to the top of the highest habitable mountains, no locality, no house, 110 person is immune from these terrible health thieves and destroyers. It is. however, in crowded and insanitary habitations one has to look for the most deadly plague spots, where exist the broken in physique, the human flotsam and jetsam of large cities; and it miay be here noted that smaller centres of population by overcrowding and insanitation can well compete with cities in this respect. Around some comparatively small bush industry a dozen or so families are domiciled in whares quite below requirements of health as regards space and sanitation. In these little temporary settlements are dozens of children, but no scheme of sanitation, and we have the experience that in such places the plague finds many victims. During the epidemic the most revolting revelations were made in Wellington; almost alongside the palatial homes of New Zealand’s budding millionaries, surrounded with all the signs of opulence and disgusting ostentation, were the dens of death, pits of infamy, crowded with ghastly looking men, women and children, and there are many people who would continue their greed and guilt amidst such surroundings. It was stated in Parliament that five i families were t living in one four-

roomed house; that six people were occupying two bed-rooms, that five dead bodies were removed from two filthy shacks; that a mian, his wife and three children were living, eating and sleeping in one room; that four cartloads of dirt were removed from a socalled house, and it was asked in the House, who were responsible for the existence of such conditions but the local authorities and the Health Department? The recent plague destroyed four thousand lives, and left many more with diamaged constitutions. Taihape, from its situation, surroundings, climate and altitude, should be the healthiest spot in the wdiole Dominion, but it contributed its quota to the four thousand it also confcv'i&uted rather more than its quota of military rejects. There is nothing amiss with the public health in Taihape yet, but if the 1 ooal authorities and the Health Department do not bestir themselves opposite conditions must arise. There are two notable diangers this town is threatened with, one is an alarming shortage of housing room, and the Other is 1a lack of a comprehensive sanitation scheme. The fact cannot be - overlooked that drainage from surrounding highlands mil per-

colates into the basin in which lies the centre of the town. This question of public health has for a time oveishadowed most others,, but there is with the passing of the epidemic a growing laxity which is particularly deplorable from Taihapc’s point of view. Next July people will bo once more aroused to a sensibility of the terrible menace to public health that ill-housing and insanitation constitute. .Late in the recent session of Parliament a lengthy, comprehensive, drastic Amendment of the Public Health Act of 1908, was introduced, discussed and placed on the Statue book. This Amendment brings into existence a Public Health Board, { whose duty it shall be to consider | and report to the Minister all matters { in connection with the public health, j The Minister may, as he pleases, ! appoint Advisory Comrnittes in any district, and with these local authorities and sanitary inspectors, rests the duty of (administering the Act. Although this Public Health Amendment ’ Act docs not appear to be as definite ' as it might be, and seems to_ fall just short of finality, it has all the possibilities for vast improvement. It removes from members of city and town "councils the onus of enforcing extreme provisions of the Act, and places it on the Public Health Department. Appeals against the destruction of any insanitary dwelling, or dwellings that may not comply with provisions of the original Act, are hoard and adjudicated upon by the Public Health Board, whose decisions are to be final. District Health Officers are to notify Local Authorities in cases of buildings being unfit for habitation from any cause whatever, and if the Local Authority finally fails ,'to act, |the • District Health Officer is himself empowered to exercise all the powers conferred on the Local Authority. Subject to appeals which may be miado, the District Health Officer is supreme, he is answerable only to the Public Health Board, and we are not sure that great difficulty will not bo experienced by any such officer in Tiaihape. We have stated that Taihape’s failings are overcrowding and an inadequate sanitation, scheme. Section twelve of the Act goes into detail in provision against overcrowding; no person shall take more than five lodgers without a license so to do, and no person is to let any house I or tenement in which more than one family is to reside, or any room which more than two persons are to occupy but in the case of this town it is really necessary to provide for what :is to become of those turned out from overcrowded places. They cannot be left to the canopy of heaven, and more house-room is the only alternative. Houseowners are loaded with another obligation; they must satisfy themselves of the number of persons who are to live in the house to let, and they may sometimes find themselves in embarrassing situations through natural increase in some tenement. Section ten of the new Act makes the appointment of a building inspector by the Local Authority mandatory, whose duty it shall be to report ias to area of land, airspace, water, baths, ~faVai tones, sanitary and hygienic conditions; he is also to state the owner’s name, name and occupation of the occupier, the number of rooms, the number of persons living in the maiding, the amount of rent payable, and give all other information required. The Act cannot be discussed exhaustively in one article, but enough Is stated to enable local authorities and houseowners to realise what a drastic change is to take place in connection with the housing problem, and what important statutory obligations they j are placed under by the provisions of the Act. While the measure was in the en passant stage members voiced the opinion that it was the duty of the local authority in towns where there was anything in the nature of a house-famine to borrow money from Government lending institutions to erect houses, and it was stated that loans for such purposes would be handsomely remunerative. As the Public Health Amendment Act comes into force on the first July of this year ratepayers, and particularly those -who aspire fb positions in local politics, should have the subject brought under discussion at the forthcoming Borough Council elections.