The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1882.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4296, 7 October 1882, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1882.

Thkbe is a subject that whether the burgesses like it or not will soon force itself upon them, the financial position of the Borough. The bank overdraft is considerable, and the banker is already making aoxions inquities of the Town Clerk as to the financial health of the Corporation. In conjunction with this is the important fact that in the township siokuess aluioat

wholly of a class induced by defective drainage, is prevalent. Tbe Borough Council has tbe unpleasant duty of voting £4 or £5 a month doctors' fees, for reporting dozens of eases of infectious diseases, and-amongst that dreadful scourge diptheria. However, our desire is not to dilate upon the evils present or probable, but to point out what we consider a means of combatting them. Nothing would tend more to effective drainage than fixing the permanent levels. There should be a systematic plan of raising, making, and draining the streets of the. Borough. If the streets were raised the engineers would be enabled to find a much better fall for the,sewage than is possible at present, owing to the township flat being so level. Again, the drainage system should be complete; there should be no water-courses running from one i street only to fiod lodgment in another. ! Some streets or portions of streets are almost all that could be desired, and compare favorably with,those in any other town in the colony, but these only tend to render the deficiencies more con* spicuous. How can tbe difficulty be surmounted ? By raising a special loan for the purpose. This is a work the benefits of which would be felt for a generation ; then let the payment for it be distributed over a generation. We would suggest that a loan of £10,000, or an amount which would be likely to complete such a scheme as proposed be borrowed. This probably could be done without difficulty, as the Borough revenues are not bpotbecated in any way. Now sums of £100 to £500 are being spent in doing portions of the work, but these in themselves are wholly inadequate, and the expenditure therefore rendered of much less effective. To serve the purpose in view the scheme must be thought out, reduced to a system, and carried out as a whole. The Borough probably could devote £500 or £600 annually to a sinking fund to pay off the money borrowed to do a work which would hare to be done sometime,.or at least should be done, and the sooner it is undertaken the better. More than that might be saved annually from expenditure streets, for out of the loan works would be carried out which are now eating up the annual revenue. Once these works were finished, the yearly necessary outlay would be much less. By this means, not only would a great deal better streets be secured, the Borough relieved from an embarrassing position, but the drainage might be so much improved that the proportion of sickness would be appreciably diminished.