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CHAPTER 22
HEALTH OFFICER
On August 26, 1861, the Mercury remarked that, owing to
increased population and its accumulation in great cities, Public Health
was now one of the most important questions occupying the attention of
statesmen and corporate authorities in civilized countries ;
town in England and the larger cities in Australia now had a Health
almost every
Officer, whose duty it was to report upon the statistics of disease and
mortality, and to direct the Government ts attention to the causes of
unhealthiness and to the areas of disease.
Hobart Town was lagging far
l
behind other civilized communities in not having a similar officer .
Very little attention has been paid in Hobart Tmm to the
subject of sanitary science. We bury our dead in the most
populous parts of the city, Hobart Tmm is literally full of
sepulchres. We have located our slaughter yard under our very
noses. The Gas House is next door, and a soap and candle
factory on the opposite side of a narrow street - the refuse
of all emptying itself in common with the uncovered city drain
into a shallow swamp of offal, rotting and seething in the sun,
and manufacturing gaseous poison.
Five years later, on July 2, 1866 , a lady visitor from Melbourne ,
holidaying in Hobart Town for the benefit of her health, found cause to
complain in a like manner .
... In point of sanitary provisions 1 must say that you are far
behindhand, and your street nuisances are positively aboinable.
Now, in Melbourne, some regard is paid to the welfare and
convenience of pedestrians, but here, 1 declare, the obstructions
and dirty impediments are shockingly disgraceful. One nuisance
1 would particularly point out, 1 allude to the hanging of fresh
killed meat by some of the butchers on both sides of the footpaths ,
and not. only the meat , but the offal , often dripping with blood
.... 1 was passing along Liverpool Street the other day with a
nice silk dress on, and 1 had to turn into the wet and muddy road
to avoid having it spoilt \'lith grease and blood. Then the filth
and garbage of all kinds that are thrmm into the streets in many
places are an intolerable uisance and would not be toler2ted in
Melbourne .1
1
Mercury, July 3, 1866.