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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 to afford an opening for relief from the present over-crowding 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 the City, while in my annual reports to the Sanitary Board I have reiterated their statements and endeavoured to show by statistics that the surface crowding here is greater 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