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instead of merely to such buildings as may be erected upon land obtained from the Crown subsequent to the passing of that Ordinance; the further crection of dwellings fronting narrow lanes is dealt with in section 12 of Ordinance 15 of 1894, while the sanitary condition of such as already exist would be greatly improved if the further obstruction of such lanes, by stalls and other erections, was prohibited, and if no partitions or cubicles were permitted in honses fronting lanes less than 15 feet in width, except upon the top floors. It is further necessary, in my opinion, that no partitions or cubicles should be permitted in any room which has not windows the total area of which, exclusive of the window frames, is at least one tenth of the floor area, and that no partitions should in any case be of a greater height than six feet, while a clear space of not less than four feet should in all cases be left between the top of such partition and the ceiling or under side of the joists of the floor above. Lastly, having regard to the peculiar construction of Chinese dwellings, through ventilation by the provision of an open space at the back of every existing house should be insisted upon; in the case of houses having backyards this can be done by compelling the removal of all obstructions therefrom, with the exception of bridges of a maximum width of three and a half feet, while in the case of houses without backyards or lanes of a minimum width of six feet, this through ventilation can be only secured by the removal of one-half of the floors of the kitchens upon the upper stories, and of the corresponding portion of roof. This device has been already adopted in a large number of back to back houses in the city of Victoria, with enormous advantage to the sanitary condition of the premises. The system of sewerage, which has been put in force throughout the Colony since the passing of the Public Health Ordinance of 1887, is that known as the separate system; the old sewers, of large calibre, which are mostly constructed of stone in such a manner as to permit of leakage into the surrounding soil, have been retained as storm-water drains, and a new series of pipe sewers varying from 6 to 21 inches in diameter have been laid to receive the house drainage and a proportion of the rainfall.

All dwellings must now be provided with pipe drains, of small calibre, (4 to 6 inches), discharging into trapped drains which connect with these sewers, an overflow from the trap into the side channel being provided, which acts only during heavy storms.

These sewers also receive the dry weather flow in the side channels, which is intercepted by means of trapped gullies, and the sewers are ventilated by means of gratings, covering the manholes, which are placed in the streets at intervals of about 100 yards.

Automatic flushing tanks are fixed at various intervals on the flatter gradients, or where the normal flow is insufficient to produce a self-cleansing velocity and the sewers discharge by means of eight outlets placed at various points along the Praya Wall. The drains of all houses above the level of Caine Road and Bonham Roads are provided with a separate sewer, discharging at Slaughter- house point, Kennedy Town, which serves to separate the drainage system of the main European residential district, from that of the Chinese quarters of the city.

A certain number of old house drains still discharge into the storm water drains, but the work of re-drainage of these dwellings is being rapidly pushed forward by the Sanitary Board, and will, I hope, shortly be completed, for the foul condition of such of these drains as I have had the opportunity of seeing opened up during 1895 and 1896, and the saturation of the earth around them with filth, have convinced me that the Board must lose no time in replacing these old and leaky drains by modern pipe drains of small calibre, if they would improve the sanitary condition of the Colony.

The storm water drains provide for the discharge of surface water from the streets, by means of gullies; these are untrapped, and in situations where such house drains still discharge into them, the gullies are offensive at times, during the dry season; this however will to a great extent be remedied as soon as the re-drainage of all the old dwellings is complete and the outfalls carried through the reclamation now in progress along the front of the city, and the Colony will then possess one of the most perfect systems of drainage that has yet been devised.

The storin water drains serve to convey all heavy rains from the hill-side above the city, and owing to their construction they also serve to some extent as sub-soil drains and afford a protection to the foundations of the houses from damp.

The system of daily removal of night-soil by buckets, which is in force throughout the Colony, relieves the sewers of practically all solid matter aud also precludes, to a great extent, the existence of disease germs in the sewers, and if rigidly enforced, is, in my opinion, the most sanitary one that can be adopted in a tropical climate. During the past year the Sanitary Board have endea voured to compel the use of impervious hard wood buckets with closely fitting lids by the night-soil carriers, while the Inspectors of Nuisances and the Police are constantly on the watch to prevent the emptying of the contents of these buckets into the public sewers; the result of the Board's efforts in the direction of improved utensils for the conveyance of night-soil was a brief strike on the part of these coolies, which fortunately however did not result in any serious injury to the public health, but with a view to providing against the repetition of any such disastrous occurrence, the Board have recommended that the collection of night-soil throughout the city of Victoria be placed in the hands of a responsible contractor, who shall guarantee that the work will be carried out in the least offensive manner possible and in strict accordance with the bye-laws in force at the time that the contract is entered upon.