THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
299
neighbourhood of houses. 3. Foul privies, stables,
drains, and cesspools. 4. Dung-heaps. 5. Pigs. 6.
Rank vegetation. 7. General want of cleanliness,
whether in houses or yards.
II. Inform owners and occupiers of the danger
incurred from the above causes, and of the necessity of
removing them. In case of obstinate indisposition
to see this necessity and to act accordingly, give
notice as provided in the 6th section of the Ordi-
nance in respect of any of the various nuisances
enumerated above, as follows:---In respect of (1), and
(2), to remove either by filling up with earth or other-
wise as may appear to the Inspector most feasible;
in respect of (3), to cleanse or at least to disinfect
with chloride of lime or carbolic acid; of (4), to
remove entirely; (5), the same; (6), to clear; (7) to
whitewash house, or to adopt such other means of
cleansing as may appear to the Inspector most easily
attainable.
III. Note in your report, or in urgent cases inform
the Executive at once, on what premises the abate-
ment or removal of nuisances is beyond the power or
means of the owners or occupiers, and the probable
cost of the work required.
IV. In any case of non-compliance with notice,
arising from any other cause than want of power or
means, proceed at once for the recovery of the
penalty, or have the necessary work performed at the
expense of the owner of the premises; adopting
whichever course is likely to lead to the desired end
in the shorter time.
V. Note any case where water in use for the
purposes of drinking and cooking is liable to be con-
taminated by human excretions, not only directly, but
by drainage through the earth, and suggest in your
report the best preventive measures.
With regard to the importance of this duty, it
may be well to mention that according to
the latest discoveries of sanitary science,
water is perhaps the most powerful agent
in the propagation of cholera virus;
and it has been stated on high authority
that the excretions of a person infected
with the disease are capable of poisoning
a large body of water, even after filtration
through the earth.
VI. Warn all persons as to the peculiar danger
incurred in time epidemic from impure air and
defective ventilation.
When a number of persons are in the habit of
sleeping in a defectively ventilated apart-
ment, and this is insufficiently large to
contain at least 800 cubic feet of air for
each person, they should be warned
(unless the neighbourhood is especially
malarious) that they are liable to suffer
far more injury from closed than from
open windows, and especially in time of
epidemic.
VII. Bear in mind throughout your inspection
that though foul smells are always an indication of
danger, danger may nevertheless exist without them,
especially in the case of stagnant water that has not
been recently disturbed.

GENERAL INSTRUCTION.
As the necessary cleansing is likely to be disagree-
able to many, it is especially desirable in endeavouring
to obtain it to use persuasion rather than compulsion.
While the measures required should be insisted upon
with firmness, no opportunity should be lost of ex-
plaining to the ignorant that they are necessary for
health and safety. Allusion to the mortality in the
last epidemic may probably be useful to promote a
ready obedience. Resort to the Magistrate's Court

may possibly be in no case necessary; but if examples
are to be made, offenders of the highest position
should be in the first place selected, as being those
whose shortcomings would be the least excusable.
A tendency to allow immunity to one class, while
another, and that the least culpable, is punished,
while always highly unjust, would if indulged in the
present instance, be additionally objectionable, as
likely to weaken, if not prevent, general co-operation
for the attainment of the object desired.
G. W. DES Vœux,
Administrator of the Government.

Mr. Simon to the Secretary of State, Colonial Office.
Local Government Board,
(Medical Department,)
Whitehall, S. W., 16th January, 1872.
SIR,-I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 13th ultimo, enclosing a copy of a Despatch
from the Governor of St. Lucia, covering a copy of
a communication received from the Administrator of
that Island, together with a copy of instructions issued
by him to Inspectors of Nuisances; and in compliance
with the request contained in the latter paragraph of
the letter I would observe-

1. That the instructions appear to relate only to
   cases where a nuisance actually exists, and not to
   cases where means of prevention against nuisance
   (such as drains to carry off slop water, proper
   arrangements for the disposal of excrement) are
   requisite. It would seem desirable that the inspec-
   tion should include both sorts of cases.
   [Although such a principle is only but little ad-
   mitted in the Sanitary Law of England, it would seem
   very desirable that, without notice from an Inspector,
   it should be an offence punishable by fine to have a
   nuisance on one's premises.]
2. The filling up of stagnant water with earth is
   not likely to reduce materially the mischief to health
   which such water may be causing, to provide against
   which an improvement in the drainage would seem to
   be needful.
3. There is no reference in the instructions to any
   local authority ordinarily charged with seeing to the
   sanitary condition of the villages. It may, in the
   circumstances of the Colony, be impossible to provide
   such an authority; but the want of it will be much
   felt in reference to sufficiency of the means adopted
   to carry out the Inspector's notices as to foul privies
   and cesspools.
   Instead of the words "cleanse, or at least disinfect
   with chloride of lime or carbolic acid," in paragraph
   2, I should advise "cleanse or empty, with the use of
   proper disinfectants, such as chloride of lime or car-
   bolic acid."
4. Drinking water should (as was suggested by a
   pencil note, now accidentally erased,) be protected
   against pollution by any filth or refuse, and not only
   against contamination by human excrement.
   I am, &c.,
   JOHN SIMON.
   The Under Secretary of State,
   Colonial Office.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 20th May, 1872.
IN conformity with the provisions of "The Muni-
cipal Corporations Act, 1867," it is hereby notified
that a memorial has been presented to His Excellency
the Governor, by the Mayor and Councillors of the
Borough of Lyttelton, praying that a piece of land
recently reclaimed from the sea, adjoining the
Borough of Lyttelton, and containing about ten acres,
may be annexed to the Borough of Lyttelton, and
that His Excellency the Governor has been pleased