The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY. MARCH 9, 1886. THE HEALTH OF MASTERTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2239, 9 March 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY. MARCH 9, 1886. THE HEALTH OF MASTERTON.

• The Masterton Borough Council meets r this evening, aud we venture to hope :,: that, among the sabjeots which its members will consider, the question of !■ the health of the town will, not be :: overlooked. At the time we write we '■ are informed that a young tradesman f in the town is all but. dying from a ! malaria which is directly traceable to : . the.negligentMnannerJ in which the : > Council discharges'' tho": duties imposed ,'■ upon it by the Public (Health Act, j Gther cases .of sickness are also spoken i of which would soem to. indicate sani--1 tary neglect, but the. partipu/ar one to ' which we are referring is 'the strongest ,'; and clearest indictment against tj/e ; municipal authorities which.has of late ... come under our. notice,. How far the' Inspector of the Borough is responsible for the apparent neglect of sanitary ,; supervision we do not know, but we 1 i are disposed to believe that the respon- : sibihty rests, more on the shoulders of : his employers,-:. Mr Ingram is a care- { ful officer, but lie was, it ; we recollect ; aright, somewhat snubbed on a former I occasion .when he displayed a httle zeHl in the discharge of his official duty . and has latterly been satisfied to bo ; just as strict as he finds his employers desire him to bo. At any i ate, there has been an inexcusable degree of laxity in carrying out the Public Health Act this summer, and the result is, perhaps, . the loss of a valuable life. ■ We ars not disposed to dwell unduly on past civic negligence, the vital.point now is to

make ■ such ' arrangements that the recurrence of preventive malaria may be obviated. Either the Council itself must undertake the duty of supervising the health of the town by means of a standing sanitary committee, or it must give its Inspecting Officer full powers to deal promptly with every nuisance which arises and if necessary back him up in' the discharge of hi? onerous duties. Unless such an officer is foe to act firmly and decisively in the dis-

charge of his duties, he cannot be relied upon to maintain an efficient' standard of sanitation. The custom hitherto has prevailed in this town for the Inspector to wait for a meeting pf the Council before taking tho most trivial step towards abating a nuisance, and so a fatal amount of red tapeism has paralized this branch of the Municipal service. No doubt the Council will feel that there is some ground for ; reconsidering their existing arrange- < mentß for maintaining the health of the. town, and we feel confident if the subject is taken up in earnest by the civic fathers, we shall soon be able to boast; of a clean bill of health in Masterton. ,