Canterbury Rhymes. Christ Church, New Zealand,
January, 1853,
——:o:——
The Song of the Dirt.
Suggested by Dr. Letheby’s Report on the Sanitary State of the City.
“Your attention has been drawn to this pestilential source of disease, and to the consequence of heaping human beings into contracted localities;[68] and I again revert to it because of its great importance, not merely that it perpetuates fever and the allied disorders, but because there stalks side by side with this pestilence a yet deadlier presence, blighting the moral existence of a rising population, rendering their hearts hopeless, their acts ruffianly, and scattering, while society averts her eye, the retributive seeds of increase for crime, turbulence and disorder.”—See Report of Dr. Letheby, Medical Officer of Health.
In a room up a squalid court,
Where “tramps” sleep three in a bed,
Where the baby sleeps by the sick man’s side,