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and this has been approved by the Sanitary Board and is already in progress.
The rate within the City of Victoria live mostly in underground burrows from which they find their way into dwellings through the brick walls and through the covering of the ground surfaces. A thorough investigation of the storm drains and sewera of the City has shown that very few rate breed in these localities, as the former are well built of granite, pointed in cement, while the latter are of properly jointed glazed earthenware pipes.
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Both climate and soil however favour the rat in its struggle for existence and for a footing within the dwellings of man, for although the sanitary law of the Colony requires all the ground surfaces within and around dwellings to be covered with lime concrete or with granite paving jointed in cement, yet experience shows that this lime concrete perishes after a time and becomes so soft that rate can readily pene- trate it, and that granite paving becomes displaced by the washing out of the soil beneath it by heavy rain storme. Much of the brickwork also becomes soft enough for rats to work their way through, so it is a common experience to find rat- runs opening into a considerable proportion of the native dwellings. These are filled up with cement and broken glass but fresh holes are found very often at the next visit.
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In the annual report for 1912 I stated that a large number of the older buildings in the City possess hollow walls, which serve as excellent nesting places for rats, and that "there is no remedy for such faulty construction short of
demolition of the premises which is too heroic a measure to be practicable on any extended scale! All drain inlets and venti- lating openings are guarded by iron gratinge to exclude rate,
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