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epidemic of Malaria among the Railway employees and that work was in consequence greatly impeded. A scheme of training the nullahs was in consequence inaugurated. A sum of $13,000 was spent upon this work, and a great deal of labour and of supervision were allocated to it. On my arrival I asked for a report from Dr. J. C. Thomson on this subject. He stated that the nullah training was a ridiculous farce, since the channels had been lined with dry stones only which facilitated rather than decreased the formation of small receptacles for water. Your Lordship is aware that for several years and at very great cost this Colony has been gradually carrying out a scheme of nullah training which has been highly successful. I therefore inspected the nullahs accompanied by the Principal Civil Medical Officer and the Director of Public Works. My own view was that the formation of concrete channels was a work of enormous cost and magnitude which could only be justified if the locality was to be the site of a permanent township. I concurred with the Medical Officer that the method pursued by the Chief Resident Engineer was both costly and useless, and I felt very sceptical as to the necessity of training nullahs down precipitous hill sides. In my opinion the breeding places of Anopheles are rather to

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