f the ravages
from typhoid, pneumonia, and other diseases in consequence.

"That the state of affairs is in no way exaggerated by prejudiced
outsiders is proved by a full-page account in a recent issue of the
Perth _Herald_, and which is headed: 'Typhoid Fever in Perth; An
Alarming Situation; The Position of Affairs Grows Worse.'

"The opinions of doctors, nurses, experts, and others are
published, all going to show that public and private action is
almost in every case as if the one aim was to increase the
death-rate to the highest possible figures.

"The water supply is contaminated; drainage runs into the catchment
area, and even faecal matter is plainly evident in the samples
analysed; there is no supervision of the milk supply; vegetables
are grown under most dangerous conditions; stagnant drains are in
almost all the streets; about public places of recreation there are
fever beds; many of the population are crowded in small
boarding-houses like rabbits, and ordinary precautions for the
removal of filth neglected, even if that were enough in itself;
houses are built on pestilential swamps; the wind blows the dust
about spots where the typhoid excrement has been deposited to breed
germs by the million; and bread, meat, and other food carts go
about uncovered to collect it, as if to make sure that any who
escaped all other sources of the danger should not be allowed to
escape the plague.

"Even the public esplanade has to be shunned, the silt from the
sewer which is being used for reclaiming being a mass of foul
matter.

"It will interest 't'othersiders' to read this about the conditions
of life:--

"'Many of the dwellings in which the t'othersiders are to be found
huddled together are first-class fever "germinators." The rooms are
small, the ventilation bad, the bed linen rarely changed, while not
the slightest attention whatever is paid to sanitation. It is
estimated that there are at least 400 small tenements, from two to
five rooms, serving as "boarding" and "lodging" houses, and in
these over 3,000 persons are sheltered.'"

Stories of how fortunes are made and lives are lost in the race for
wealth in Western Australia would fill volumes.

A typical story, and a genuine one to boot, is worth recording. A
well-known racing man trave