The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1884. SANITATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1683, 12 May 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1884. SANITATION.

It was'satisfactory to notico that at a recent meeting of (lie Masterton Borough Council it was proposed to refer a sanitary question to a medical officer. For many years past from time to timo wer have reminded our local city fathers', that they are by law "a Board of Health," and that the responsibility of keeping the town in a healthy condition rested upon them. • The question of sanitation has not, ■ however, been one that has ever troubled tho Bor-j ougli Council to any considerable extent. We do not suppose its members have even read the Public Health Act which they are supposed to administer. Still occasionally there have been indications that Councillors remembered that they had sanitary duties to perform, and when wo find them actually going so far.as to desire a report oil an alleged nuisance from a medical authority, we may congratulate the town on the fact that they are -waking up to realise the necessity of sanitary precautions, Duriiig' tho past few months it lias been reported that ther'o has been almost a succession of deaths from diptheria and other diseases which are usually the outcrop of sanitary negligence, ' We cannot say for certain whether the rumors of malaria which have, been ■ circulated' have' been well founded, ; because we liavo no authoratfttivo. data by which wo can test Iliem. Is: is, however, obvious that the Borough as a Board of Health, should be in a' position ' to' know whether from a sanitary point of. view, the town is or is not,in a satifr, factory state. It could no doub'ifc obtain

from the District Registry, periodical returns of all deaths which occur within its jurisdiction with the- causes which produced them, and from such returns it could from time to time guage with a fair amount of accuracy the sanitary condition of the Borough, Out own-impression is that there is frequently 'sickness in the town which is the result of sanitary negligence, and that occasionally fatal cases aviso out of auoh sickness. The Borough Council seems to be willing to put its hand to tlie sanitary plough, and we hope that it will yet be able to do good work for the-burgessea as a Board of Health,