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74
sanitary welfare of its inhabitants. So many miles of new
sewerage and branch drainage having been completed in
former years, has left but comparatively little to accomplish
in the same direction; consequently every succeeding
Report must of necessity contain less reference to such
works; but it affords no little satisfaction to be able to
speak favourably of the permanent results of the sewerage
system as carried out with so much perseverance in this
neighbourhood. Another noteworthy point in the Table
just spoken of is the small amount of litigation that was
necessitated during the year under notice, there having
been but one case adjudicated upon by the magistrates in
that period.
Concerning the more recent case known as that of
"the Priory Nuisance," a great deal might be here
advanced did space permit. So many legal points were
purposely imported into this case by the defendant to
defeat the action which the authorities were compelled to
take, that the sanitary question involved seemed at the
Police Court to be almost ignored. The ultimate dismissal
of the summons, after several adjournments, neither
party being adjudged to pay costs, was very suggestive of
doubt in the magisterial mind, and it has been thought by
many who have watched the case from the commencement,
that had his worship visited the locality of the nuisance,
and had inhaled for a few moments only, the noxious
emanations from this filthy receptacle of night soil and
sewage, the decision must have been very different from
that which was given. Whether it will be wise, after
what has transpired, to risk the realization of the fabled
policy of allowing the steed to be stolen before taking
any really effective steps to secure the stable door, is a
question I will not attempt to discuss in this report, but
as a Medical Officer of Health, I feel I should be ill
performing my duty, did I neglect to place on record my
humble but deliberately formed opinion, that the time
may come when this failure to obtain the full advantages