Page 708
can come in from outside I do not consider that malignant malaria has hindered the work to a very great extent this year.
The arduous nature of the work naturally debilitates those employed and causes a certain amount of weakness which in turn renders them more liable to attacks of malaria than ordinarily would be the case.
16. I do not think that any training of nullahs would be of much use unless done in a very elaborate scale making them similar to the nullahs trained in permanent settlements such as the Peak and Victoria, Hongkong.
17. The important men to keep on the works in good health are the European miners and the fitters and machine drill men. These being of a better class see the advantage gained by the taking of quinine and the results are very encouraging.
18. When English miners go down with malaria it can nearly always be traced to neglect to take quinine or the state of health consequent on drink.
19. His Excellency when issuing instructions that the Public Works Department should carry out this work writes:- "This will relieve the Chief Resident Engineer of work which is not railway work and which will delay its progress". Of course I have had to submit to this command but I would point out that the question is purely one of price, I consider that I have done quite as well as any one else could do at $2 per foot considering the size of the nullahs to be trained and if it is decided to spend twice that amount I consider that I and my staff are quite capable of doing it as well as the Public Works Department.
I have etc.
(Sd.) E. V. Ives,
Chief Resident Engineer.
189
Page 708
(repeating the page number as per original scan)