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whole on the subject of sanitation was eliminated when that report was published. It was afterwards resuscitated by Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY in 1878 and became public property. To the facts mentioned in this report I have frequently referred and the report itself has been more than once published in extenso in the public press and very frequently quoted from. The condition of things described as existing in 1874 were still worse in 1894 as far as overcrowding, want of ventilation, defective construction and general filth in the houses were concerned because the population had increased enormously, the same insanitary state of construction of the houses had been continued, and from being only two stories high they have increased to three and four stories high and also increased in number in many places, whilst in others the same old houses described in 1874 exist by hundreds in the same condition then described with the same filthy walls and floors impossible to clean, and the same underground dens. The drainage in some places, has been improved as regards the main drainage, but as regards the house drainage it, in most cases, in 1894 remained the same.

In the autumn of 1874, the Government being of opinion that my reports were exaggerated, appointed a Commission consisting of the Surveyor General, Mr. PRICE, and Mr. ALFORD, an architect and engineer in private practice, and myself to supply a further report; and from the beginning of Octo- ber 1874 to the end of April 1875, every week day afternoon from 2 P.M. till dusk was spent in inspecting every portion of the city, when another still stronger report was sent in amply verifying all I had stated signed by all of us. A month before the work was finished Mr. PRICE's health broke down, and Mr. ALFORD and I finished the work by ourselves in the first week in May, I having spent the major portion of my time for the past eighteen months in "slumming.' I was attacked with typhoid fever, Mr. ALFORD fortunately escaping any ill effects.

From that time on I continued with the assistance of two Inspectors in charge of the sanitation of the Colony being able to effect but little improvement, till in 1880 serious disputes on the subject of sanitation occurred between the Government on the one hand and the Surveyor General and myself on the other which terminated in each of us appealing to the Secretary of State, by whom Mr. CHADWICK was appointed a Royal Commissioner and sent out to inspect and report on the sanitation of the Colony.

His full report was published in a Blue Book in 1882, amply verifying the evils we had brought to notice and confirming still more fully all we had said in our reports,

By Mr. CHADWICK'S recommendation a Sanitary Board was appointed in 1882, relieving me of a burden which I had borne for eleven years. In 1887 Mr. CHADWICK was again sent out and expressed much surprise at the little that had been done in the six years since his previous visit, and by his advice the Sanitary Board was reconstituted and enlarged, the Public Health Ordinance revised and enlarged as regards its powers as also the Building Ordinance; and since that many other amendments have been made with accompanying bye-laws and a Land Resumption Ordinance sanctioned, and others in connection with sanitation, water supply, drainage, &c.

The water supply has been nearly completed, but the quantity is found to be insufficient, the quality of the supply has been proved by monthly analysis to be superior to that of most English

towns.

The main drainage is nearly completed, but as regards house drainage is still far from complete. The Building Ordinance refers only to new buildings, and existing buildings previous to this Ordinance remain the same.

The Land Resumption Ordinance until 1894 remained a dead letter.

The Sanitary Board as reconstituted meets fortnightly and at times of alarm, as in the case of the small-pox epidemic and the cholera scare, holds frequent emergency meetings. Voluminous reports have been made, and some of them published, by Sub-Committees, the Superintendent and Secretary of the Board, Mr. MCCALLUM, the Sanitary Surveyor, Mr. CROOK, the Veterinary Surgeon, Mr. LADDS, under whom are the Markets, Slaughter-Houses and Cattle Depôts and Lairs, and by the Board Inspectors. The Board's Officers have had some praise sparingly given, but one and all have been severely and at times censured in no measured terms by some members of the Board for having in their zeal for the service done things which required immediate attention and common sense sanctioned being done, and on being reported at the next Board meeting received the censure as their reward for doing things without the previous sanction of the Board.

The Official Members of the Board in their several capacities have had metaphorical missiles thrown at them in unstinted supplies.

The want of a Medical Health Officer as Superintendent, many times insisted on by me from the beginning as an absolute necessity, but from economical motives ignored till Mr. McCALLUM's health broke down completely from the overwork of doing the double duty which necessitated his being out and about the greater part of the day and doing his office work at night. The necessity of a Medical Officer of Health then begun to dawn upon them generally and was fully recognized when the plague began.

Long wordy, windy, desultory, rambling discussions are held by the Board at their fortnightly meetings ending in nothing being done. Sub-Committee's reports, called for in many cases as a means of delaying action, end in abortive attempts at action, as in the case of the Sub-Committee's report on Overcrowding when threats of riots and strike, amongst the Chinese, moderated the tone of the

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