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Of the above 389 cases, 67 are known to have been imported into the Colony from the mainland or by the shipping, but in most of the cases of Small-pox no information whatever could be obtained concerning their origin, owing to the desertion of the sick and dead by their relatives. I regret to say, moreover, that nothing has been done during the past year to protect the Colony from the introduction of infectious diseases, by the shipping, as recommended in my Annual Report for 1896, although a striking illustration of the danger to which the Colony is exposed from this cause was afforded by the cases of Small-pox arriving with the Willison Circus Troupe in the month of February, and which were landed and distributed in various Hotels in the city, before the disease was officially recognized.

It is in my opinion absolutely necessary, in a Colony so situated as this, that every vessel arriving in British waters should be boarded by a medical man and all persons thereon inspected before any communication is permitted with the shore, and this was also the opinion of the Sanitary Board as evidenced by the following motion, which was moved by the late President, and carried unanimously at a regular meeting held on April 8th, 1897 :—

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“That a letter be addressed to the Colonial Secretary pointing out the desirability of arrange- ments being made, at as early a date as practicable, for the medical inspection of all vessels entering the waters of the Colony, and for the notification of the intended place of destination of those landing from an infected port or vessel, in the manner provided for in the Regulations issued by the Local Government Board, dated the 9th day of November, 1896.”

Unfortunately, however, owing to a change in the constitution of the Board, and the temporary absence of the unofficial member, this decision was reversed, on the 19th day of August, of the same year, by a motion of the President, seconded by the Captain Superintendent of Police, opposed by the Acting Director of Public Works and myself, and carried by the casting vote of the President, to the following effect :—

"That the medical inspection of the shipping in this Colony be carried on as at present, but, in order to bring the practice here more into accord with that at home, that Part II of the Regu- lations issued by the British Local Government Board on the 9th November, 1896, be incorporated, as far as practicable, into the present Quarantine Regulations, an officer of the Police Force or of the Harbour Department being substituted for an officer of Customs.'

It may be explained that "the medical inspection of the shipping in this Colony as carried on at present" permits of free communication with the shore and the landing of passen- gers before the visit of the Health Officer of the Port, and is therefore, in my opinion, of absolutely no value as a means of protection of the Colony from the importation of infectious disease.

The only circumstances under which a vessel may not establish communication with the shore before the visit of the Health Officer is when such vessel arrives from a port or place which has been declared by the Government of this Colony, by a proclamation in the Gazette, to be infected-a procedure which is very rarely adopted-or when the master of any vessel is so sure of the existence of a case of infec- tious disease on board that he flies the Quarantine flag on arrival-an almost equally rare occurrence.

The not unnatural result of the action of the Board has been that the question has remained since then in statuo quo, the last paragraph of the later resolution not having been carried into effect, pro- bably because the cost of providing Police boarding officers in lieu of medical boarding officers would be almost as great, whereas the results would be most unsatisfactory and the delay to shipping would be far greater. It must be remembered, of course, that there are no Customs dues in Hongkong, and hence there is no staff available for the assistance of the Port Medical Officers as at home.

My own scheme for the proper working of the medical inspection of the shipping, without any unnecessary delay, is that there should be three Assistant Medical Officers of Health, appointed exclusively for duties afloat, that they should form part of the Sanitary Board staff, and act generally under the instructions of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony. Two residences should be provided, one at Kennedy Town and the other at North Point, both close to the shore, and these officers, who should be young single men, should be required to reside therein-that is to say, two of them at Kennedy Town and one at North Point, or vice versa. From sunrise until 9 a.m. there would be a boarding medical officer on duty at either end of the Harbour; from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. the third medical officer would be on duty and would deal with all vessels entering the Harbour between these hours; from 3 p.m. till 5 p.m. one of those who had been on duty in the early morning would take charge while the other would be on duty from 5 p.m. until an hour after sundown. In practice it would probably be found that these hours of duty would need some modification to accord with the seasons, for they merely suffice to show that three boarding medical officers could readily accomplish the necessary inspection of the vessels without any undue interference with the shipping interests of the Port. A boat with four Chinese boatmen would have to be provided at either station, while the launch already in use would be needed during the time that one officer only was on duty.

The function of each of these boarding medical officers would be to board every vessel, whether steamer, sailing ship or native craft, entering the waters of Victoria Harbour while he was on duty and