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made on estates employing indentured immigrants, and the other 9,976 hogsheads were made on estates where many unindentured coolies were working--a clear proof of how essential this labour is to the estates. Even important public works could not obtain sufficient regular labour. The Select Committee further point out that while the planter has paid the whole expense of immigration he could only secure the services of the immigrant for five years out of the ten years of industrial residence necessary for claiming the back passage, or the money in lieu of it. The Council, by a majority, passed a resolution in favour of the recommendation of the Select Committee; but Sir William Grey delayed these important papers on which so-much depended for several months, and then reported to your Lordship against the proposed concession. We hope, however, for a more favourable decision from your Lordship upon a consideration of the whole question.
There is one other point to which we may briefly allude; and that is the necessity for some legislation to check the increase of vagrancy, and put a stop, if possible, to that practice of robbing provision grounds by the idle and lawless, which has been such a hindrance to the small settlers, and indeed is fruitful in distress and crime. It is believed that Sir William Grey collected considerable information on this subject, and it would be useful to have the papers printed. At all events, we feel that the subject is one which cannot fail to engage the very serious attention of Sir Anthony Musgrave on his arrival in the colony.
We have only now to commend these points to your Lordship's consideration, convinced as we are that your impartial judgnient will induce you to act in such a way as will promote the interests of the great and once eminently prosperous but still hopeful colony, in which we take a deep interest.
Mr. Hill.-Will your Lordship allow Dr. Bowerbank to say a few words upon subject of the sanitary condition of Jamaica ?
The Earl of Carnarvon-Certainly. I shall be happy to hear him.
the
Dr. Bowerbank.-My Lord: the Chairman of this Deputation having specially named me in connection with the sanitary condition of Jamaica, before making any remarks I would beg to mention to your Lordship that I have been forty-one years in the Island, practising the profession of medicine, and that during that time I have held many important appointments, which have given me unusual opportunities of observing the sanitary condition of the Island.
It is a painful duty which I have to fulfil in stating my opinion of matters in Jamaica. Sanitary measures have always been at a very low cbb. Your Lordship may recollect that some years back I had to move in the matter of the Public Hospital and the Lunatic Asylum. A temporary improvement took place in the hospital; the asylum, I am glad to say, las improved, and is a model institution, and would be so even in this country. But, my Lord, in spite of the great increase of the expenditure for sanitary matters in Jamaica, I regret to say that for the last ten years matters have not improved. In stating this I am well aware that I am contradicting general opinion in a great measure. I am well aware that the opinion I am expressing is at variance with the opinions of many; it is opposed to many of the statements in the Blue Book, and it is opposed to many of the official returns. But, my Lord, I am quite prepared to prove what I state. To go into the different particulars would be perfectly impossible on this occasion; but, my Lord, I have noted down a few of the institutions which I am sure it would be well worthy Sir Anthony Musgrave to inquire fully into when he goes out, and if that is done I am quite certain that the correctness of what I state will be proved.
Now, my Lord, the Government Medical Service is an institution of the last few, years. It was instituted, I think, about eight or nine years ago. There is no law for it in the first place. The duties of the medical officers are undefined, and I can assure your Lordship that many of them go out perfectly unaware of their duties. They go out believing that they are going to join the Public Medical Service, and when they get out there they find themselves most terribly disappointed. To my knowledge many of those men have died broken-hearted; they have gone out believing that they were going into a service where, in case of incapacity, they would obtain a pension, and they have gone out believing that in case of sickness they would be provided with substi
No such thing. There is nothing of the kind. There is no pension and no substitute provided, and a man going home sick must find his own substitute, and pay him. The pay is miserable; it is perfectly impossible that any medical man can do what he is called upon to do honestly and properly, for if he does he must, starve. He is expected to keep horses, the districts being so enormous that it is impossible for any man to walk. It is not what Jamaica was. Jamaica does not want a number of
tutes.
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medical men merely; Jamaica requires dispensaries in the outlying lands, and dis- pensers; it requires a good and ready supply of good medicine. The diseases of the negro are few in number, and if treated promptly they get well. As I said before, there is no law for this service at all, and as to the working of it, perhaps one cannot mention stronger fact than to tell your Lordship, that in the eight or nine years that this institution has existed there have been no less than nine heads of it. There have been nine Superintendent Government Medical Officers. I think that is pretty good proof of how it works.
In former days, in 1831, there were 208 qualified medical practitioners in Jamaica. Then every estate had its hospital; it had its hot-house doctor; it had its granny or its midwife, and it had its yaw hut. Now we have nothing of the kind. In Jamaica, a country containing more than 600,000 inhabitants, there are not 60 medical men-indeed, not above 45, I said, a year ago, and I was quite correct, because there have been several deaths since, that there are not more than about 15 medical men attached to the Government Medical Service. What is the consequence? They have the coolies, they have the police, they have the paupers to attend to. If a medical man gets sick he has no one to do his duty, and for two or three days every month the medical officer has to attend at different courts and there is no one to attend to the people at all. That is a serious question with regard to immigration: there is no dispensary where they can get medicine; the medical man is responsible for the medicine and liis time is taken up in putting down fractional doses of morphia, quinine, and so on; he takes his key with him, for there is no medicine in the district. These are facts, my Lord, and there are many others; however, I must not take up your Lordship's time.
Besides that, I may mention that some of these Government Medical Officers, unable to support themselves out of their professional gains, keep shops. There is one gentleman who sells pins and petticoats, and devotes much more of his time or atten- tion to that than to anything else. Others keep grocery shops and so on.
Another point I may mention is that many of those gentlemen who go out from England go out in bad health, some of them are consumptive, and they are not men who are able to go through the arduous duties that are thrown upon them.
The next point that I would mention is the Medical Bill. Your Lordship, I dare say, is aware of the history of that Bill. It was very much opposed by the profession as unfair, the great object of it being to allow Canadian graduates to come to Jamaica and practice contrary to the Imperial Law, and that gave Canadians a great advantage over all the other Colonists. It has not succeeded, the Bill is not working, and it is a dead letter in consequence of clerical errors in the Bill, and in consequence of the strange clauses of the Bill, it is not working.
A Council was appointed, and from some technicalities, I believe, they resigned, . and there is now no Council at all. By a clause in the Bill, Canadians can be admitted without any Medical Council; they can be admitted by the Colonial Secretary alone; he himself can order the Registrar to register them and entitle them to all the privi- leges of practice.
Again, there are no qualifications for druggists; there used to be, but the Medical Bill now empowers everyone to practice. Formerly there was a restriction, which was a very necessary thing in a Colony like Jamaica, where disease is so acute in the majority of cases, particularly if neglected. However, there is no restriction at all now, anyone may practice, hut of course, he does not perform any Government work.
Another law which I would refer to particularly is the Coroner's Law, and here I am sure the two last Governors will join me in saying that it is a disgrace to any civilized community. I verily believe that it encourages foul play. The District Judge is the Coroner, and the District Judge has a district as large as any county in England, at least, as large as many counties in this country; and although he is the Coroner, I do not think there are three instances of the District Judge having acted as Coroner. He gives a permit to a substitute, and there must be a fresh one every time, and the Coroner is often twenty or thirty miles away. Then another terrible point in this Bill is that in his absence the nearest sergeant of police can call in a medical man to perform a post-mortem examination. I do not think I am guilty of any uncharitable- ness when I say that instances have been known where there has been collusion between the sergeant of police and the Medical Officer, and that unnecessary inquests have been held. On this point I would mention that the fixed fee for a Coroner's inquest is 21. That is the law; but there is a rule now in the Government Medical Service that, if a body is not examined for, I think, three days, the fee is 5l. 5s.; and it is a well-known fact that the sergeant of police will put off an examination, so that
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