ents, professional consultations with the junior medical officer of the Medical Department and other cognate matters appear to me to be amply sufficient to fully occupy the time of one medical man without adding thereto the onerous duties of administrative Head of the Sanitary Department.
4.
The Sanitary Commissioner should be a member of the Sanitary Board and it is advisable that he should be its President or Vice-President. He should be the channel of communication between the Sanitary Board and the Government of the Colony, and should be consulted by the Government on all sanitary matters involving the expenditure of money, whether for sanitary improvements generally or in connection with the yearly estimates of the Sanitary Department. It would be his duty in addition to those mentioned in the Report to see that the orders of the Sanitary Board are duly and expeditiously carried out by the respective officers of sub-departments, and at the same time he should be responsible to the Government for the economical expenditure of the funds set apart yearly by the Government to meet current sanitary expenses, while his official status should be the same as that of the Head of the other Government Departments of the Colony.
It would greatly conduce to the good sanitary administration of the Colony if the Health Officers of the Port, whose duties are essentially sanitary in nature, were made subordinate to the Sanitary Commissioner. It is the duty of the Sanitary Board to protect the Colony from the importation of disease and to take the necessary precautions that epidemic disease shall not spread within its boundaries, and it is accordingly necessary that the sanitary administration of the Port should be in their hands. Duplication of effort leads to delay and mistakes. (See Section ... of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, amendment ...) and this could no doubt best be met if it be decided to appoint a Sanitary Commissioner.