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principle everybody in England in possession of alcoholic liquor and were caught gambling were imprisoned or fined, the gaols would not hold them. Yet opium-smoking does not do 1,000th part of the harm to either the individual or his family that alcohol does at home. As for the gamblers not one in a hundred is investing more than a few cents at a time and crime does not appear to be more rampant in Macao where gambling is licensed than it is here.

In spite of all that has been said about the accommodation in the Gaol, I doubt if any gaol in England can show as small a rate of sickness and mortality as the Victoria Gaol. To remove the Gaol to a new site would enormously increase both the sickness and mortality as there is no other site without opening up new ground, and for many years this would be a great source of trouble. The Table above shows that the daily average of prisoners is on the decrease and but for the Gambling Ordinance being enforced more thoroughly during the past year there would have been a much larger decrease. The expense of a new gaol for the building itself would be enormous and the upkeep would be more than doubled when removed from its central position. I see nothing to be gained by a removal and a new gaol, but a great monetary loss to the Colony, and bodily harm to the prisoners. The Western theories as regards sanitation are in many cases at a discount as regards the Chinese, and the overcrowding theory is amongst them. Of their own free will they will not bear what to European ideas is considered most beneficial to their health. In Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY's time a new set of quarters on sanitary principles were built for the Chinese servants at Government House. The Chinese servants immediately on taking possession reduced the amount of ventilation very considerably, and on being told that the obstructions could not be permitted, they said they preferred to leave, and His Excellency was reduced to the choice of having no servants or abandoning the European theory of ventilation as far as they were concerned. As regards the town and overcrowding the Sanitary Board have been completely nonplussed, the first attempt to carry out the Health Ordinance as far as this was concerned raised such a commotion that it was found all business would be stopped, the excitement among the Chinese at the enormous increase of cost it would entail on them for rent was immense. Until the new drainage system is completed and the new water-supply also, no reliable statistics can be made as regards overcrowding on the health of the population. Under the circumstances I have described in former annual reports and Mr. CHADWICK has reported on concerning house- building, house-drainage and water-supply, the mortality among the Chinese according to European ideas of sanitation has been exceptionally low. When the present accommodation for them has been otherwise rendered as healthy as possible, it will then be time to consider the question of overcrowding. As far as ventilation is concerned Chinese houses are very detrimental to many Europeans who inhabit them and cannot afford the rent of a European-built house. In the cold weather it is impossible to keep out of a draught in a Chinese house, and children and adults suffer terribly from chest and bowel complaints in consequence. In the hot weather the Chinese houses are seldom overcrowded, for you will see the inhabitants sleeping in the streets by the thousand. In the Chinese quarter it is difficult sometimes to make your way through a street at night without treading on some one. habits and customs of the Chinese are entirely different from Europeans. In cold weather the loose clothing and the number of coats they wear, wrap them in many layers of hot air. In hot weather a loin cloth or a pair of pyjamas is enough for them. The European with his tight clothing and no decent fire-place in the house, for no ordinary Chinese house has a fire-place except in the kitchen, suffers from the cold and draughts in winter, and his ideas of decency compell him to suffer from the heat in summer ten times more than any Chinaman would. On account of overcrowding and for the above reasons, I am of opinion it would be a terrible mistake and misfortune to the Colony if a new gaol is built. The proposed alterations that have been sent home, I think, will meet all the requirements of the Colony as regards gaol accommodation. The number of cases admitted to Hospital is a little over 14 per thousand of admissions to the Gaol, and the deaths from sickness are a little under 14 per thousand. There were seven deaths from disease, none of them due to the confinement in the Gaol, and one death from suicide, the man did not die immediately after hanging himself but a few hours after from the effects of the attempt to hang himself. As a matter of fact the Chinese prisoners in Gaol as regards health are far better off than out of it and in a good many other things: food, lodging and clothing, &c., in the majority of cases.

The

Dr. MARQUES is to be congratulated on being able to give such a good report of the health of the prisoners in spite of the overcrowding.

Table XIB and XIc give, respectively, the numbers, age, weight on admission and at the end of a month, with the quantity smoked, of opium smokers in the Gaol, and the number that required medical treatment, with the cause.

per

There were 56 prisoners who reported themselves as opium smokers to the extent of one mace diem or over, of these 10 were placed under medical treatment. Of these 5 increased in weight, 4 had slightly decreased in weight at the end of the month, one remained the same. Of the healthy ones the majority increased in weight. The decrease of weight in all the cases recorded was very slight. The average weight of a Chinaman is about 110 lbs.

I have tested this in the Gaol for the use of the New York Insurance Society, when I took the weight of several hundreds of those at work in the different classes of labour. It is a rare thing to find a Chinaman that will top 10 stone. My chair coolies are well known for their speed and endurance and size, the heaviest of them is only a little over 130 lbs.