38 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
colonists. They would, of course, be easily obtainable. The question of 
money is the real one, but the difficulty there lies not in our want of funds, 
but in the unwillingness of the Assembly to vote money for any purpose 
which is not likely to prove of immediate practical utility. The cost, how- 
ever, when divided between several colonies would fall lightly enough upon 
each, and I cannot bring myself to believe that either the colonists of New 
Zealand as a body, or their representatives in the General Assembly, would 
begrudge the expenditure of £15,000 or £20,000 (for our share would 
probably not exceed that sum) upon a scientific work which would shed 
lasting honour upon the colony. 
Art. III.—On the Cleansing of Towns. By J. Turnsutn Tnuowsow, C.E., 
F.R.G.8., F.R.8.8.A., Surveyor-General of New Zealand. 
(Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 30th November, 1878.] 
Aw efficient and economical system of town cleansing is 2 responsibility 
that soon forces itself on colonial communities; hence its discussion cannot 
but be fraught with interest. Even in mere camps the subject is of the 
first importance to the health of armies, to travellers, or to moving tribes 
and peoples; an early appreciation of which we have in the laws of Moses.” 
That it is not otherwise in New Zealand is evidenced by the various 
enquiries that have been instituted from time to time, by the measures of 
the various town councils, and by the reports and papers of engineers. The 
earliest Sanitary Commission in New Zealand, that I am aware of, was that 
of Dunedin, in which city it is stated that the death-rate, in the year 1868-4, 
was 35:3 per thousand. More recent statistics show great variation in 
different towns and years, as follows :— . 
Auckland .. in1875 .. 86°77 in 1877 .. 16:68 per 1,000 
Wellington .. » +x 26°01 2 to, 05D iv 
Nelson “a 27°39 js 16:96 ^ 
Christchurch j .. 80°44 » .. 35:60 ue 
Dunedin .. 5 . 22°94 A c bor 5 
Impressed with the weight of the above considerations, during my recent 
visit to England I took the opportunity of examining the actual state of the 
sanitary works in several towns either wholly or partially, besides which I 
obtained personal interviews with the officers of several of the Boards, thus 
directly obtaining the views that had been arrived at by a full knowledge of 
* Dout, xxiii., 12, 18. 
