Page:Municipal Handbook of Auckland 1922.djvu/222

 Commencing with a staff of two, the Department's career has been one of continuous, if somewhat irregular, development, the officers to-day numbering nineteen. This expansion is not alone due to the fact that the population has considerably more than doubled, or that the area of the City, by the inclusion of suburban districts, has increased over five-fold, but to the greater vigilance and efficiency that is now needed to meet the demands of a continuously rising standard of civic hygiene, and in particular to the necessity of having a sufficient and well-equipped staff to provide against the introduction of epidemic disease, to which Auckland, as an important shipping centre, is normally exposed.

During the time the Sanitary Department has been in existence, conceptions of health, public and private, have undergone the most radical changes. Sanitation, with its many and complex problems, has now become one of the foremost of municipal undertakings. Health is conceived as something more than the mere absence of disease, and to a great extent as being purchasable. The keynote of modern health principles and practice is prevention.

For several years supervision was exercised over the sanitary and refuse removal services, then carried out by contract. This system was, needless to say, an almost constant source of dissatisfaction to the public and an anxiety to the Council. Ultimately, the contracts had to be terminated and the work undertaken