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of the members that, in March of last year, a site of Crown Land in the centre of the City, namely at corner of Wing Lok Street and Old Praya was sold, and less than two months later the Acting Coloni. 1 Secretary wrote in reference to a recommendation from the Board for additional latrines and urinals-"It is easy to recommend the erection of urinals and latrines, but not easy to find sites for them." Dr. Clark admitted that a latrine was erected upon this particular site, but submitted that if the remainder of the site had been retained, it would have been of great value for the erection of a market, bath- houses, or some other municipal building. Again he called their attention to the road leading from Hunghom to Kowloon City. This had been laid out as a 50 foot road and verandahs were being made on both sides of this road, which would reduce its effective width to about 30 feet. He was of opinion that this would become a very important highway, and that a 30 feet road would be quite insufficient to serve the purposes of the traffic in the neighbourhood. 20.---On the authority of the minutes of the Sanitary Board, as published in the Government Gazette, we are able to point out that a Latrine in Shektongtsui, situate in the west end of the city, recommended by the Board at the end of 1896 is only now being completed. The Board also recommended a Public Latrine for Kowloon Point in 1896, but so far without result. Further Latrine accommodation was urged upon the Government in April 1897, May 1898, and April 1899, but nothing was done in the matter until 1900.
21. The Sanitary Board in 1898 recommended the erection of a Crematorium för incinerating carcases of diseased cattle which die at the depôts instead of burying them as at present. It is found that these diseased carcases after burial are frequently disinterred by coolies and used as food. Nothing has yet been done in this matter.
22. The Sanitary Board in 1898 strongly urged a reduction in the Height of Buildings and the Board has repeatedly recommended such reduction since. It is absolutely impossible for districts to be healthy where streets are only a few feet wide with five-storey buildings on either side. Nothing has been done in the direction indicated.
25. One of the greatest evils the Colony suffers from is Surface Crowding. Dr. Francis Clark, the Medical Officer of Health, dealt fully with this question at a meeting of the Sanitary Board on June 1st, 1899. He then said :--
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This "surface crowding" is a matter which has been brought to the attention of the Government at intervals during the past 25 years. In 1874 the late Colonial Surgeon, Dr. Ayres, directed attention to the matter; in 1882 and again in 1890 Mr. Osbert Chadwick spoke most forcibly, in his Reports on the sanitary condition of this colony, of this very matter. In 1889 Sir William Des Voeux reported to the Secretary of State for the Colonies that one of the principal objects of the Praya Reclamation scheme was afford an opening for relief from the present overcrowding of the population," but unhappily this object has not been attained to any great extent, for almost the whole of the Reclamation bids fair to be occupied by large godowns and blocks of offices. In 1894 both the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board and the Committee on the Housing of the Chinese" directed attention to the amount of surface crowding which existed in this city, while in my Annual Reports I have reiterated their statements and endeavoured to show by statistics that the surface crowding here is greater by far than in the most densely populated metropolitan districts of the City of London. Again, the Insanitary Properties Commission appointed in 1897 dealt largely with this matter and recommended further legislation-hopelessly inadequate I admit- on the subject. The Sanitary Board, at the request of the Government, deliberated upon the Report of this Commission and submitted a report of its own, dated June 9th, 1898, dealing fully with the various points raised by