PAST AND PRESENT SANITARY CONDITION OF SYDNEY. 529 



(b) Deficient drainage. — The greater part of the suburban area 

 is without any means of conveying the offensive matter 

 from their midst ; liere history is repeating itself. What 

 was the condition of the city in the earlier days is repeated 

 in many parts of the suburbs at the present day. Many 

 other causes may lead up to the solution of the question, 

 but hs this paper does not treat of the suburbs, but of the 

 city, it may not be out of place to compare the death-rate 

 with other countries. Taking some of the principal cities — 

 say London,* 21.4; Boston, 22.0; Paris, 26..3; Berlin, 26.4; 

 New York, 30.6; Montreal, 27.12; Sydney, 21.36, per 1000. 

 These figures are for the year 1884— the rate for the city 

 for 1886 is 17.06 per 1000. 



It will be seen from the foregoing figures that the health of the 

 city will compare very favourably with the leading cities of the 

 world. 



The completion of the new scheme of water supply and sewer- 

 age, together with proper legislation will tend greatly to improve 

 the comparison. 



An increased supply of watei', affording facilities which cannot 

 be overestimated from a t^anitary view, and available for the 

 smallest tenement in the suburbs, cannot but be productive of 

 good results — the necessity of drawing the domestic supply from 

 wells very often contaminated with foecal matter and decomposed 

 organic filth, will be dispensed with. 



The interception of sewage from the harbour and inlets, and the 

 discharge of the same into the sea, or disposed over land, will also 

 materially contribute to the public good. The crowning point to 

 be attained is the efficient ventilation of our public and pi-ivate 

 sewers. The three great factors of opposition to be met with on 

 this head are — ignorance, sentiment, and greed. The first can be 

 disposed of by educating the objectoi's up to the natural laws 

 which govern health ; the second is the most difficult to deal 

 with ; the third can be met by proper legislation. The object to 

 be attained in all sanitary works is the preservation of the public 

 health ; a low death-rate means a saving to the State, a high 

 death-rate on the other hand is a loss. In an article in one of the 

 daily papers, the writer says, in connection with sanitary matters 

 that — " We are not hopeful that anything that can be done will 

 bring the general mortality of a crowded city with so many con- 

 ditions unfavoui-able to health, within the range of a death-rate 

 of a population who breathe pure air and exist in the favourable 

 circumstances of the country. But we are satisfied that much 

 may be done to reduce the mortality of our growing cities." 



* Trans. Inst. Civil Engineers, Vol. lvxxi. 

 I 1 



