The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-03-13

city government in any of its branches, while
he is member thereof, and any contract made
III violation of such provision Will be Invalid
The language of the statute is broad, and GOV.
ers contracts of all descriptions, whether verbal
or in writing. | will also call your attention to
the ordinance of the city, providing that no
committee of either branch OF the city council,
or any board appointed by them, have power
to make any expenditure from general ap.
preparation exceeding three hundred dollars,
until such authority Tor such expenditure shall
be first had from the city council.
HEALTH OF THE CITY.
One other topic l wish to allude to. have of
late been interested in matters pertaining to
the health of our city. There were seven humid
red and three deaths within our limits the last
municipal year. If we call our population
thirty-fye thousand this would indicate a
death rate of about twenty and one-tenth to
one thousand Inhabitants, against twenty lone
the year before, and an average of twenty two
for the last six years. Before the introduction
of sewerage and Sebago water the death rate
in some years rose as high as twenty eight to
thousand Inhabitants. Statistics show that
fifteen to thousand is about the lowest
death rate obtainable in cities as an average.
Portland, from its naturally heslthful stu
alton and means OF good drainage, and its
immunity from pestilence and epdemcs,
ought to be QUE of the most salubrious cities in
the world. She has an interest in the length
| of life of her citizens as we'll as IN their
p6CuQldFy prosperity, Line sanitary COu6
| contained in the Revised Statutes and or
| dinances of the city, seems ample, with perhaps
one or two exceptions. What we need is, to
have it more strictly and Systematically execut-
ed than heretofore, by intelligent oversight and
control over filthy and Over-crowded tenement
| houses cellars, back yards, vaults and privles,
| drains and sewers, stagnaut pools of water, and
the like; and in view OF the unfortunate failure
before the last Legislature of the bill establish
| ing State Board of Health, in order that we
| may obtain and enjoy locally the benefits con-
templated in that bill tor the whole state,
would suggest some change in our city ordl-
| nance relating to the organization of the Board
| of Health so as to make it thoroughly practical
and efficient, and adding the city physician and
| city engineer to the board; making it among
other things its duty to watch over the health of
| the city and point out the means of its preser-
| walton; to detect and remove the many causes
| of disease and death In out midst, which are
wholly or to great extent preventable; to
collect and report reliable vital statistics, and
| to instruct the people in the laws of hygiene
| and in the knowledge of sanitary improve
ments. This done, the beneficial result would
soon be apparent, in diminishing the death
rate OF the city, and in illustrating the power
of modern civilization, and of the broader in
telligence of later times to control, or at least
to mitigate, the ills of humanity.
| CONCLUSION
And now in closing, let me say this: Con-
| sidering that our city debt, though large, is
already limited by legislation within bounds it
cannot pass, and is soon to be limited more
| strongly by constitutional guaranty; that we
have no floating debt, no certificates of in
debtedness outstanding like many cities that
| the origin of our debt is not fraud or pecula-
ton, but at most the result of mistaken policy,
born of a zeal beyond our means, for what were
regarded at the time as public improvements
| that by the exercise of moderate degree OF
self-denial we have the power to absorb the
| increased amount of interest we are to pay into
| our taxes without raising the rate; that the
various departments of the City Government
| on the whole are in so satisfactory condition !;
considering all these things, and also con.
| sidering how nobly Portland has passed through
the financial crisis, and what in the more remote
past she has successfully achieved and bravely
endured, am not disposed to take a despond-
ing view of our present situation, or to regard
the future outlook for the city as dscouraging,
but on the contrary, as most hopeful
When public attention was fairly directed to
the condition of our finances, when the amount
| of our Indebtedness was fully ascertained, and
its extent for the future strictly limited, then
| the crisis was passed. then the tide turned, and
we became masters of the situation.
AT the end of our term of service, may we be
| able to give a good account of our stewardship;
may our country then be found at rest, the
stress of hard times over, our business interests
and industries revived, and our good city once
more entered upon career of long continued
| DrOSDprity