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16
On presenting my Report to the Council last year I was asked to include in
future Reports some suggestions as to ways in which the health of the Town might
be advanced. In addition to the constant watchfulness of the Council's Public
Health Committee and its officers that the present Regulations and Bye-laws be
not contravened, it seems to me that there are some directions in which the
Council may take thought to obviate dangers which are either imminent or to be
feared in the future.
The first relates to the better supply of fresh air to the inhabitants, and it
should be considered whether the Urban District has not been sufficiently built
upon and whether future building should not be allowed to spread only on adjacent
areas where streets may be planned to be broader, houses erected detached or
semi-detached, and each with a sufficient space attached for its garden. Houses
should, for the sake of the very young and the very old, have as few stairs as
possible, or the erection of bungalows be encouraged. Open spaces for parks and
pleasure grounds should be secured where possible with the same object in view.
Next in importance to secure clean air must come the adequate removal
and treatment of waste products. Plant life deals naturally with the carbonic acid
gas of the atmosphere, but if the air of our streets is to become purer house and
animal refuse of every kind must be adequately dealt with. One portion of this
viz., human excreta and slops, are already well treated by our land and filter bed
system, but manure heaps are still allowed to lie and breed flies by the hundred
thousand and the dry refuse from our houses is dumped down on a site not far
from houses, whereas it should be either sorted and the unusable portion burnt, or
the whole of it destroyed beyond power to revive disease.
It is to be hoped that the cleansing of the streets, especially of the yards
behind the main road, not seen by many beside the residents of those yards, may
be made more efficient. Dust bins are too small, and the refuse often overflows
them before the weekly or fortnightly collection is made, the consequence being
that a certain proportion is blown by the wind into the air of street and house with
dire results.
Other ways in which the general health may be promoted is by the
establishment of Building Societies so that the Housing problem may be assisted in