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houses, which still remains. To prevent overcrowding it is accordingly necessary not only to limit the number of houses to be built on a given area, but also to limit the number of people that shall occupy a room. The present limit of not less than 30 square feet is too low a standard and should be raised to 50 square feet.

No definite rules in regard to cubic space per head are laid down in England. except with reference to common lodging-houses which are required by the bye- laws to be vacated, the windows freely opened, and beds stripped during certain hours of every day. But the Imperial Public Health Act defines as a "Nuisance" any house or part of a house so overcrowded as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the inmates and it is left to the discretion of the Sanitary Authority on the advice of the Medical Officer of Health to determine what constitutes over- crowding; their decision is of course subject, in the event of legal proceedings, to the decision of the Magistrates who would be naturally guided by expert evidence.

In a tropical country and with an Eastern population whose tendency is to herd together, the conditions are so different from those obtaining in England that it is desirable not only to have definite rules laid down for all classes of native dwell- ing houses but also to fix the minimum at a proportionately higher level. This view was taken by one of us in 1882 and it was then recommended that 600 cubic feet of air space should be the minimum allowance per head; 50 square feet of floor space per head is the minimum recognised in India for all jails.

In order that the unbuilt over areas of Kowloon and the New Territory shall not get into the same insanitary and overcrowded state as the City of Victoria, it is important that they should be laid out on definite lines, and with this object in view it is recommended that a map should be drawn showing existing and projected streets and scavenging lanes planned out on lines which will ultimately when the areas are built on secure a healthy and well ventilated town.

PROPOSED BILL.

27. In preparing the draft Bill which has for its object the avoidance of the necessity for further sanitary legislation, for the next few years, it was soon found that the only practicable way of carrying out this proposal was to consolidate the whole of the Sanitary and Building Ordinances in one Bill, for the Public Health Ordinance of 1901 was found to contain many clauses relating to construction, some of which, in our opinion, most certainly need amendment. This consolidation however is quite in keeping with the construction of the Imperial Public Health Act of 1875 and subsequent amending Acts which deal not only with sanitary administration but also with the regulation of streets and buildings and we are sure that to have all the provisions of the local law on sanitary and constructional matters within the pages of one Ordinance will prove very useful not only to the officials whose duty it is to see that the law is complied with, but also to the Architects and others who design and erect the buildings. The Bill is divided into six parts :-Part I being Preliminary, dealing mainly with definitions; Part II dealing with Public Health Administration; Part III with Building Cons- truction; Part IV with the rights of adjacent owners; Part V with the Resumption of Property by the Crown for sanitary reasons; and Part VI with Penalties and Contraventions.

In Part II provision is made, in the constitution of the Sanitary Board, for a Sanitary Commissioner, as we are convinced that the Sanitary Department should be administered by an officer who should devote the whole of his time to such duties. and who should be ex-officio the Chairman of the Board and Head of the Depart- ment. This officer should be a medical man specially trained and skilled in sani- tary affairs, and responsible to the Government for the effigient administration of the Department. Certain duties which are now performed by the Medical Officer of Health, in the name of the Board, have been transferred to the Sanitary Com- nissioner, but care has been taken not to encroach in any way upon the powers

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