THE SYDNEY DAIRIES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1507, 18 May 1886, Page 3

THE SYDNEY DAIRIES.

The revelations made in connection with the recent outbreak of typhoid fever at Leichardt are such as to create considerable public uneasiness in connection with the Sydney and suburban dairies. According to reports furnished by the I Chief Medical Inspector, there were no fewer than thirty-eight cases of typhoid fever araoDg the customers of odo dairy on the Helsarmel estate, and of these five resalted fatally. The only water supply which this dairy possessed was well water, which was contaminated not only by sewage, which percolated through the soil from tbe surrounding houses, but also by the drainage from two cemeteries containing upwards of 10,000 bodies. To make matters worse, the contents of the pan ctoset on the premises were buried in the toil quite close to the we'l in one case not more than Bft and in another not more than 10ft from the edge of the well. It is added that the water has always had a bad smell —no bad indeed that the keeper of the dairy has actually been in the habit of putting Condy's disinfectant fluid into it before giving it to the cows, yet the house had no other water supply. These facts coming to the knowledge of the Chief Medical Inspector, Dr Ashburton Thompson, that gentleman made an inspection of sereral other dairies in Leichardt, Marnchville, and TVaterloo, and the result was almost as. bad as in the case already described. The premises in one case are said to be " indescribably filthy." In two cases the Government Analyst reports that the water used is " totilly unit for consumption by man or beast" and in another he wrote:—" The water is almost as bad as sewage itself, and about equal to the effluent from a sewage farm." Of the six dairies which were examined, Inspector Thompson declares that " four have water which is unfit for human use, yet it is so used by the cowkeepers, and for purposes of their trade." He describes these six places as "a sample of the suburban dairies of Sydney."—PreHS.