The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1883.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4581, 10 September 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1883.

One of the most important considerations in every town"should be the health of its inhabitants, and where every attention is not paid to sanitary arrangements, progress in almost every, olher matter can hardly be expected to exist in it. In cases where the physical welfare of a people is neglected, their commercial prosperity is hardly likely to follow, and their resources very naturally become crippled, owing to the heavy handicap placed on them, the cost of medical and other assistance they . are pat to, the bad odour" they get into—metaphorically as well as actually — with adjacent communities, aod a variety of other following causes. Amongst the principal aids towards the inducement and / support of health in towns and cities is one which appears to have been either overlooked or neglected at the Thames, viz., the provision ok recreation reserves for the people. Writers on the question have made the subject of the reserves in towns one of the most important to be dealt with in considering the public health, and in commenting on the necessity of providing the longs of populated districts, have gone, some at length, in the direction of shewing .that without these provisions, the people have no healthful places of resort, more especially iv the case of children—and the Thames . certainly can claim credit' for poss.e«sing its share of juveniles —the streets alone are at their disposal for exercise, and such streets too, carrying drains, containing impure matter and decomposition of various descriptions. Were proper provision made—as id other ,

places of less and greater population—our 1 rising would be naturally greatly benefitted. Some few years ago the Borough Council made a sort of effort in the way of providing such a reserve as we refer to, and whether their ideas of distance arc unevenly balanced, the members who acted in the matter had never seen the place, or they were intent on making Parawai the centre of the Borough, it is impossible to say; but,'certain-it is, they secured a piece of- land which is of no earthly use to the inhabitants of the Borough, except that it adds.a few pounds a year to its revenue. There is no use in bewailing the action then taken, and we have no desire to become lachrymose over the lacteal fluid which has been upset, but it is not i impossible to get parliamentary authority j, to part with the piece of ground in ' question, and purchase another with ! the proceeds from it; effect an exj change, for a more central site; or \ make a purchase with some time arI rangement in the matter of paying for it. I The chronic state of poverty which our local bodies seem to live in should not be allowed to interfere with this all important subject. It is not absolutely necessary that the cash price of any land bought for the purpose we allude to should be paid at once. It displays anything but the possession of the necessary qualifications for the positions of local representatives' for the members of local governing institutions to continually offer the excuse of irapecuniosity as a cause for their inaction in important public works. They are placed in the positions they occupy for the purpose of not only doing work if they have the good fortune to be possessed of a good bank balance, but also to . take measures for obtaining the necessary means to carry | out requisite undertakings in - their 1 respective districts. We trust that the , opening of this all important matter will have a salutary effect in causing it to be at once discussed with a view to carrying oar suggestions, or others in the same direction, into effect.-