443
: :
are very unsatisfactory. The Bubonic Plague which may be considered the most extreme result of defective sanitation, now threatens to become endemic in the Colony, the periodical outbreak of this disease this year recurred without the intervening year free from disease as was the case in the previous epidemics of 1894-6 & 8.
In referring to the danger to the fortress and garrison the Principal Medical Officer reports that the following points need special attention:-
A. Insufficiency of Medical Officers in the Colonial Service for sanitary work. The Principal Medical Officer is of opinion that this service is so undermanned as to render it impossible to be of real use in checking disease. A single health officer for the city of Victoria is in his opinion entirely insufficient.
B. Insufficiency of Sanitary Inspectors. The Principal Medical Officer is also of opinion that the subdistricts for the sanitary supervision of the teeming Chinese population are too large, not sufficiently manned by the subordinate inspectors, and that efficient work cannot be done to check the spread of disease.