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the subject. The Sanitary Board, at the request of the Government, deliberated upon the Report of this Commission and submitted an unanimous report of its own, dated June 9th, 1898, dealing fully with the various points raised by the evidence taken before the Commission and making a number of suggestions which, if adopted, would unquestionably tend largely to abate this surface crowding. As a result of all this, a Bill was read for the first time in the Legislative Council on the 22nd November 1898, but this Bill has not yet become law. The recommendations made by the Board in that Report comprise (1) the provision of backyards or areas; (2) the amendment of the present regulations concerning the height of buildings whereby a house fronting a street 15 feet 1 inch in width may be as high as one fronting a street 20 feet in width; (3) Revised rules as to cocklofts and cubicles; (4) draining and lighting of private streets and lanes and one or two other smaller matters, and I submit for the consideration of His Excellency that these recommendations are most temperate and reasonable and would urge that they be adopted by the Legislature of this Colony at an early date. The Board have done something in the meantime to abate this surface overcrowding, for I may mention that