12
able land available for the purpose. If efficiently supervised it should prove,
financially, a profitable one; and although the first outlay would be heavy, it
would, I am confident, be cheaper for the Municipality to raise a loan and carry it
out, than to sustain, year after year, the dead loss entailed by the maintenance of the
large establishments I have above shown to be necessary; to which must be added
the cost of breaking up and cleaning the present inefficient drains. I have, from
information supplied me by the Secretary, roughly estimaaed that the annual
expenditure on all these operations would come to something like Rs. 89,000.
If this amount were capitalized, it would, at 6 per cent., represent a sum of
Rs. 14,83,000. If a loan be raised, I would urge that, in order to lighten muni
-cipal taxation, its repayment may be extended over at least 50 years. Even the
present disgraceful out-fall of the sewers (as long as it is allowed to continue)
could be improved by running it out, by means of iron pipes, into deep water
and mid stream.
27. I think that the Health Officer should receive more support from the
Commissioners than he has hitherto done, and that all orders to any of the
staff placed under him should be given by himself alone, and not by any one else,
as otherwise his authority would be weakened. I should recommened him to
keep a register of all convictions under the Municipal Act in his department, and
that the same plan be adopted in other departments, as I was surprised to find
on my enquiry that no record of such existed. After a few years it is found in
all well-managed municipalities, when the people have begun to recognize the
value of sanitary work, that they pay readier attention to the legitimate require
- m e n t s o f t h o s e e n t r u s t e d w i t h t h e s u p e r v i s i o n o f m a t t e r s p e r t a i n i n g t o t h e
public health, and that the number of summonses decrease. The Health Officer,
Mr. Mahadev Yeswant, is duly impressed with the great necessity of giving the
people ample and full notice of what course they should adopt in carrying out
the requirements of the law, and of the advisability—as I took occasion to im
- p r e s s u p o n h i m — o f n o t a p p l y i n g f o r a s u m m o n s f r o m t h e P o l i c e M a g i s t r a t e
until all legitimate means of persuasion had failed. I think he could do much
good in getting the people to pay greater attention to the more frequent lime-
washing of the interior of houses; some of those I saw were begrimed with dirt,
and reeked with organic matter slowly undergoing putrefaction. At the same
time I think the police should not—as I had occasion to observe more than once—
permit flagrant nuisances to be committed in their very sight; and I would also
hope that the Magistrates, if a dereliction of the law is proved by the Health De
-partment, will inflict such proper penalty as the law allows. The aid that Magis
- t r a t e s c a n g i v e t o m u n i c i p a l o f f i c e r s w i t h o u t i n f l i c t i n g h a r d s h i p o n t h e p e o p l e
as has been well shown in Bombay, is simply invaluable.
28. The existing graveyards inside the City ought to be at once closed,
and fresh ones should be, as directed by Dr. Leith, procured on the south of
it; and the Municipality should lose no time in framing bye-laws, under
Section 72 of the Act, for the registration of births and deaths. Such bye-laws
should insist on all burial-grounds being registered in a book to be kept by the
Health Officer, in whose office the information obtained from the death reports
should be tabulated in English, according to forms laid down. The owner of each
burial-ground should either maintain a police sepoy to be constantly present,
a s i s d o n e i n m a n y b u r i a l - g r o u n d s i n B o m b a y , o r e l s e h e s h o u l d e n t e r i n t o a n
agreement, under a penalty to be provided, not to allow any corpse to be inter
- r e d u n t i l a p o l i c e s e p o y h a d b e e n c a l l e d , i n o r d e r t o t a k e d o w n t h e n e c e s s a r y
particulars, which should be daily forwarded to the Health Officer. If the
burial-grounds were situated on the south side, it is believed that no funeral
party could leave the City without passing a police post. A similar course
should be adopted at the Hindu cremation ghâts. A more careful supervision
on the part of the police would ensure a truer return of births, and a penalty
should be inflicted on all persons whose duty it was to report a birth, and who
h a d n e g l e c t e d t o d o s o .