The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1884. PUBLIC HEALTH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1764, 18 August 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1884. PUBLIC HEALTH.

Our local contemporary is astonished to learn that scarlet fever has made its . appearance iu Masterton, We believe we are correct in s&yin£[ that this form of disease has been prevalent in the town for some months past, and that it is now, happily, all but disappearing. We however quite agree with our coni temporary that the insalubrity of the '.. town.is due to the negligence of the Borough Council, and that the clauses of the Municipal and Public Health •Acts which the Council is supposed to administer are a dead letter. Inspector Ingram acts as health officer at a small salary, but it is impossible for him to give, on the terms of his engaget inert, that attention which is requisite to back yards and other haunts of disease. Such an officer ought to pay a monthly visit to every household in the Borough in order to secure a systematic and effective supervision, but to do this he would require to be paid a substantial i enumeration—say alout £IOO per annum. We believe we are within the mark in saying that the i duty which the officer now discharges is to make an inspection only when a complaint is made to him of some particular nuisance, There is, however, no provision made for an independent and systematic periodical inspection. Again, when the inspector does call the attention of the Council to some alleged nuisance, he is usually subjected to a certain amount of ridicule, instead of encouragement being given to him to take such steps as may be necessary to abate nuisances, We know ourselves of nuisances which have existed in Masterton for years, but we also know that the administration of the law is so weak and lax in Masterton that it is practically impossible to suppress them. , As our contemporary ably put it, " our sanitary commissioners novev got be-' yond the complaining stage." In other centres of populatiou sanitary laws are strictly enforced, and there is no reason why they should be so much ignored in this town. Masterton is decidedly unclean and unhealthy, and if it cost the borough rates £IOO a year to change this condition'of things, the money would be well spent. But yes. terday a residence in Queemstreet was pointed out to us where all the nightsoil, slops, and garbage were habitually thrown out of doors to putrify, Such scandalous breaches of the Public Health Act could not occur if the Borough Council did its duty. Our advice to the Borough Council is to employ a competent inspector to pay a monthly visit to all the premises in the more populous parts of the borough, with instructions to insist upon thorough cleanliness. If this were done and the Council, when complaints against ratepayers of sanitary neglect were made by their officer, backed him up in any action necessary for removing them, the town would soon be more healthy than it is at present,