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Mr. SHARP. Do you find the present regulations with regard to the mail steamers help you at all?
Dr. SWAN. Yes, a lot.
Mr. SHARP.-Less trouble?
Dr. SWAN.-Less trouble for me.
Mr. SHARP. What are the special duties to be assigned to the Second Port Health Officer ?
Dr. SWAN.To assist in the work, I
suppose.
Mr. SHARP. You would not divide the hours afloat?
Dr. SWAN.-We would merely divide the work.
work would amount to very little for the two of us.
If there is no quarantine the
Mr. SHARP.--Is not six in the morning till six p.m. rather a long time?
Dr. SWAN.--It is very hard work. Sometimes I don't get to tiffin until three or four o'clock in the afternoon. Sometimes I have no breakfast at all.
Mr. SHARP. Have all emigrant steamers to be examined ?
Dr. SWAN.-All those carrying over twenty passengers. Colonel HUGHES.-What-do you call an emigrant steamer?
Dr. SWAN.-Steamers carrying emigrant passengers to Singapore, Penang, Van- couver, Victoria or San Francisco.
Colonel HUGHES.-There are not very many, are there?
Dr. SWAN.-Well, last month we had 19, and I passed over 7,000 passengers.
Colonel HUGHES.-What do you mean by
Dr. SWAN.-Examined.
Colonel HUGHES.-Walked by each man?
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passed "?
Dr. SWAN.-Yes; but in plague time I examine them to see if there are any symptoms of fever. This year I have examined 60,000 passengers up to date.
Mr. SHARP.-There is no examination of the River steamers ?
Dr. SWAN.-No, there is no examination. I don't go on board.
Mr. SHARP.-Would it be possible to have an examination of them?
Dr. SWAN.-I should say it would take two or three medical men to do the work. The Canton steamers, especially, carry on an average one thousand passengers each time, if not more. I assisted in that work in 1898.
The Chairman.-If you had another man to help you here, I suppose the work would be fairly easy?
Dr. SWAN.-Very easy.
The Chairman.-If two men did Port work it would be quite easy?
Dr. SWAN.-Yes, quite easy.
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The Chairman.-And you would have time to spare?
Dr. SWAN. Plenty of time to spare, because steamers coming from an infected Port come in during the early morning, and you would finish your work by 9 or 9.30
a.m.
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