2020: DAY 45
SMH, p6
Burning rubbish opposite Union Co. Wharf, Sydney, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW
(p4 )Editorial - "the idea of a New Sydney" -> "The modern mind is somewhat impatient of these things (overcrowding, poor sanitation, old methods and old ways) and in no way more so than in connection with sanitary matters..." - " ..it has to be remembered that we are not administering here an old-world city which has reached the limit of its development... Sydney is a city and a great commercial port with a future lying before it..." - "There are certain phases of any city improvement scheme which can only be dealt with by the central authority. Private enterprise may change the frontages to streets by the erection of fine buildings, but if the streets are narrow and crooked we must look elsewhere to supply what is wanting. Still more is this the case when the neighbourhoods are not such as to encourage outlay in this fashion. Such sections become crowded with tenements, insanitary and neglected by the municipal authority until they develop into plague spots in the heart of the city." * the plague spot is a rhetorical figure used by capital in its expansive phase. - "The lesson of the last few months" - "We have been taught to see that neglect means disease, and the plague visitation has warned us of the results which may be apprehended from offering harbourage to the germs of Oriental epidemics in the crowded quarters of the city...We have to utilise our advantages and if a New Sydney is to be created it must arise, not from any merely sentimental impulse, but from an intelligent public spirit calmly and sanely abreast of the sanitary science and the legitimate demands of public convenience proper to the age we live in."
BUBONIC PLAGUE
WORK IN QUARANTINED AREAS- Redfern area - "the quarantine is not so strict as has been observed in the city..." people pass fairly freely. -> Assyrian quarter
- 707 rats
- McCredie says from now on men employed will be engaged thru' the Labour Bureau, as it takes up too much of his time interviewing.
MOORE PARK TIP –
HOW IT IS MANAGED - rag & bone pickers prevented from eking out their living - but 10 of them paid a wage by council to level out the loads of rubbish.
- the tip as a site of economic activity; scavengers; outbreak disrupted this. Rubbish at first taken to sea; this soon abandoned and then rubbish taken to "new" Moore Park tip, each successive load to be covered with layer of sand; this didn't happen as SMH noted on May 6)
CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEES
KING ELECTORATE
MR GH REID PRESIDES- Dr O'Neill; the matter which had called them together might be dealt with in one sentence - cleanliness and the use of plenty of soap and water. The plague would go under their influences. At present the people were still looking for help and they must be taught to help themselves.
- Mrs McNamara - more gutter flushing. Teachers should be instructed to impart principles of hygiene to school children
- Mr Burns - plan for mapping out electorate in sections which those present might inspect and report upon
GIPPS ELECTORATE
- Aldermen, clergymen members of committee
FLINDERS ELECTORATE- on necessity for action -> "The citizens hardly realised the amount of damage being done to Sydney as the commercial capital of Australia. It was absolutely incalculable. (Hear, hear)"
LANG ELECTORATE/
BLIGH DIVISION
/ PHILLIP WARD- praise heaped on committees by chair
- nothing was more important than the health of the people
Belmore
DISRUPTION OF RAILWAY EXCURSION TRIPS TO VIC.