LOCAL BOARD OF HEALTH.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 120, 8 February 1879, Page 2

LOCAL BOARD OF HEALTH.

An ordinary meeting was held on February 4(h. Present—Messrs. Talbot (chairman), Quinn, and Barker'. After reading and confirming the minutes of the last meeting the following report of the Health Officer for the district was read and adopted, except with respect to the ease of overcrowding, winch was ordered to stand over till next Board day. A vote of thanks was accorded to Dr Rayner for his report. To the Chairman and Members of the Local Board of Health, Tern uka. Gentlemen,— I much regret that I cannot, on this occasion, congratulate the Board upon the sanitary state of the district. The fatal cases of diptlieria in Mr Lee’s family amounted to three in toto. The Board will recollect that at their last ordinary meeting I reported one case only as fatal. On the 16th of January I received an intimation in writing from Mr Wills, your Inspector of Nuisances, informing me of another fatal case in the same family, and upon visiting the house I found another child prostrated, which died about an hour after my visit. Your Inspector with myself was of opinion that this fatality in. one family ai'ose through a foul drain underneath the dwelling-house. Such being the case I directed your Inspector of Nuisances to immecliatety communicate with the Board’s Road Overseer, and those officers will doubtless communicate to you the result. I may mention that the Fire Brigade engine was employed to sluice out this drain, and the stench I am informed upon doing so was unbearable. Doubtless Mr Lee was liable under the Public Health Act to be brought before the Resident Magistrate, but 1 think the Board will agree with me, under the melancholy circumstances of Iris bereavement it may be abandoned. So far as my official duties every necessary precaution was taken to prevent tbe spread of the infection, and I am happy to say wjth success, the disease in the township being only confined to that house. Another fatal case of diptheria in the family of a Mr Elkers was reported to me. This family lives not far from slaughtering premises on the Ivakahu road of the above Mr Lee. I visited those premises on Saturday last, and fomid the shed clean, but there was a kind of wallowing pool of thick mud used by the swine in hot weather, more to their luxury than to that of your Health Officer. This, and the collection of the dry refuse in the yards, was promised by Mr Lee to be attended to at mice. Two other families in the township of Epworth were reported to me as having diptheria. I visited the families and found the information correct. Every requisite precaution as to disinfectants, &c., was taken by me to prevent its propagation. Two cases of scarlatina were at the same time reported by Dr Gumming. These occurred about five miles off. I, however, found that your chairman, in whose family it was, had done all things necessary to prevent it spreading. Your Inspector asked my opinion as to the state of the land of Mr Mendelson’s, between Bryant’s smithy and Nicholas’s stables being injurious to public health. I am of opinion that it is. Information was given me of a privy existing under the roof, and in close proximity to Mr Nicholas’s groom’s dwelling and sleeping room. So great was the exhalation from this dark and hidden sink of noxious effluvia that the persons of the stable could not occupy their room. Mr Men-

dclson has since informed me how much he regretted it, and that he paid to have it emptied and the approach to it prevented by storing full tins of kerosino. I have no doubt this will prevent any further interference on the Board’s part should there be an accidental combustion. The state of a certain dwelling-houso has been frequently brought under my notice. In company with your overseer I visited the place this morning (Monday). There are six children, with parents* occupying two rooms, 14 x 12. The sanitary state of those rooms I will leave first to your Inspector. The Overseer will, I have no doubt, inform yous as to the size of the rooms, &c. The Sanitary Act of the Imperial Legislature, 1866, states under the Nuisances Removal Act* as a nuisance : “1. Any house, or part of a house, so overcrowded as to be dangerous to the health of the inmates.” I consider this to be so, and would recommend the Board’s interference in accordance with the Public Health Act. The nuisance at the back of Mr Burrows’s cottage still remains in Yine street.' Mr Wareing informs me that he is laying down drain pipes for the removal of tho nuisance previously complained of. There is a nuisance at Mr Storey’s, which is in your Inspector’s department. I cannot too strongly urge upon tho Board the drainage of the town, neither can I help requesting that the most rigid inspection of the different privies and urinals in those places to which public, access is given by your public officer. Public report has given the health of Temuka an undue share of mortality, but the death-rate furnished me by the Registrar will compare with any other place in New Zealand as to population. I trust the Board will endorse the advertisement inserted iu the. local paper* and give, by resolution on the minutes, the requisite authority to prosecute those, persons infringing the Public Health Act. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, T. 0. Kayner, M.D., Health Officer,. Temuka, 3rd February, 1879.