DR. COUGHTREY'S REPORT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 368, 27 June 1874, Page 3

DR. COUGHTREY'S REPORT.

I An excellent letter signed "Erehwon" appears in the " Cromwell Argus " of June alrd, in reply to an article in the " Otago Witness," which treated the Cromwell (epidemic in a very flippant manner. We give rbelow extracts from the letter : — The " Otago [Witness" makes merry over what it calls our butmew. ■ Its jubilant feeling kindles into

transports over our Cromwell uncieanness, $BeaM, and death. Crows are said to feed

upon carrion, but the animal instinct of the f Witness" gloats itself upon tears, new-made graves, broken hearts and households, and the bitter anguish of many a Rachael in view of losses never to be repaired. The editor lead the report of Dr. Coughtrey, and having doneithat, his indignation becomes unbounded. He musters all the eloquence of the mighty office to damn Cromwell for its filth, and |ibbet the. town as a pest to the district, and a plague-spot to the Province. , Had the "Witness," before dooming Cromwell as a hopelessly spotted leper, turned back its files daring any one year since the ippointment of the present Inspector of Suieances, it would have found fifty-two witnesses to loathsome details of uncieanness in Dunedin, compared with which Cromwell ii but, a bleaching-ground. The death-rate |here from natural causes during the last ten lyears has been lower than in any other part of (the Province, and would no doubt have resmained so, had not the fatal disease been [imported^o the district some two years ago ; t'and our unrivalled climate held it in check till the close of the last year and the beginning of the current year. And when it fell • upon the town, had we been in command of the same medical skill as that which met and [mastered the scarlet fever in Dunedin in 1864, the Doctor's report might have been less pleasing to the "Otago Witness," and ' more lucrative to the Doctor himself. Ten ytars ago, the digging population were i squatted under calico tents, with no other intention than to get gold from the river [terraces and make tracks. Sanitary conditions, street lineß, and public reserves were rnever thought of. The summer's wind and Winter's cold suggested the idea of iron houses, but these till lately had no more hold upon the soil than twelve inches of quartering gave them. The digger believes in gold tnd little else, and any conditions of life are welcome t6 him so long as he is in the way of 'getting it j and this has been the case all along the line of his march and everywhere. And now to hold up Cromwell as exceptional for pmcleanlinesß, because it is what every hastily diggings township has been, is a ■taoustrous injustice. A run of good luck has [detained the digger, and things are taking on forms of unexpected stability ; and all at once ire are called upon to show sanitary condi;tions that can only be expected of a township -of fifty years' growth. And because we cannot show them, the " Otagc Witness " us off the roll of civilisation, and sets [ju down as little better than savages.