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of such a resolution being passed, but the majority will accept a Roard which leaves the responsibility with the Government, i.e. a Board which will be pre- sided over by the Chief Medical Officer, and on which there will be an official majority. The Governor Joes not like this solution but would propose to accept it as a compromise. He submits a draft Ordinance and asks for instructions by telegraph.
The Board will consist, according to the proposal, of three official members, Director of Public Works, as the Surveyor General is now called, Captain Superin- tendent of Police, and the principal Medical Officer,
at present styled Colonial Surgeon, and of two elected members. The Ordinance does not provide that the Colo- nial Surgeon shall be Chairman, but it is clearly in-
tended that he should be so.
This compromise brings things back very much to where they started. It is designed to combine the
appearance of a Board with Government responsibility. The plan will probably work well for a time, though probably also rather less well than a purely Official Board, and then will come the stage when more rate- payers' representatives will again be put on, and so
we shall move round in a circle. The criticism of Mr
Belilios, one of the unofficial members, seems to me perfectly jusz. "I object to the proposal for unoffi- cial elected members chiefly because, while they would in all cases be out voted and powerless, their presence at the Board and the sanction given by their votes
when
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