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small Committee of experienced Colonial Officials then in England should be constituted to frame regulations on the lines which he sketched out. Accordingly such a Committee was formed, under Lord Onslow's chairmanship, and their recommendations, as embodied in my circular, referred to such matters as choice of sites for buildings, use of wire gauze and mosquito nets, and giving publicity to a large poster with diagrams on "Malaria, its cause and prevention," which Dr. Manson was good enough to prepare, and copies of which formed an enclosure to the despatch. I abstained from offering any opinion myself on the suggestions, not having the requisite professional or local knowledge; but I invited expressions of their views from the various Governors, and have of course left them to use their discretion, with the guidance of the medical men on the spot, as to what exact steps might be taken and how far the results of the recent experiments could be usefully adopted.

36. In West Africa, to which I may more specially refer, strong efforts have been made under the guidance of the Liverpool expeditions to extirpate the malaria-bearing mosquitoes in townships, as at Bathurst in the Gambia and Freetown in Sierra Leone. These operations have entailed a considerable expenditure upon the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and also upon the local Governments, who are now incurring still further expense in carrying on the work already begun.

The Sierra Leone Government is also incurring expenditure amounting to upwards of £30,000 in the construction of a railway to the hills in the neighbourhood of Freetown, with the special object of providing healthy sites on higher ground, removed from the centre of native population.

On the Gold Coast a definite scheme of sanitary organisation and improvement has been drawn up for Cape Coast, the most unhealthy town of the colony, on the basis of a report by Dr. Logan Taylor, of the Liverpool School, and is being carried into effect as opportunity offers. The town of Secondee has been laid out by the Government on modern lites, the European quarter being kept distinct from the native, with a view to diminishing the risk of infection from Malaria. Tasks under Government control have been made mosquito-proof, wells have been covered, and all pools which form the breed- ing places of mosquitoes are being filled in, as far as practicable.

In Lagos Sir W. MacGregor has taken active and personal interest in the problem of combating malaria, and has adopted such practical measures for reducing the unhealthi- ness of the Colony as filling up swamps and pools on the island, and on the mainland in the neighbourhood of the railway, providing mosquit-proof houses, purifying wells and supplying rainwater tanks, spreading knowledge of elementary hygiene among the natives by means of lectures delivered by medical officers, and establishing dispensaries and out- stations for the distribution of quinine.

In Southern Nigeria steps have been taken, with considerable success, to improve the sanitation of Akassa, in accordance with the suggestions made by Dr. Annett, of the Liverpool School. A scheme has also been recently initiated for establishing European reservations at the larger stations, the cost of sanitary improvement being met partly by Government and partly by rates paid by the inhabitants.

In Northern Nigeria the work of occupation and settlement has not given much opportunity for carrying out sanitation to any large extent, except at Lokoja.

37. I have not yet referred to the question of providing trained private nurses for the Crown Colonies. Soon after I became Secretary of State this question came before me, and on the 26th and 27th of June, 1896, I addressed two circular despatches to the Colonies, one enclosing certain recommendations made by a Committee of Medical Officers connected with the Colonies, who, under the chairmanship of Sir Charles Gage-Brown. were good enough, at my request, to consider the question; the other forwarding and commending the scheme of the then newly-formed Colonial Nursing Association. The Association have received a grant of £500 from the Government of the Federated Malay States, and are paid a fee of £2 2s. for each nurse selected by them for the Government service of the West African Colonies and Protectorates, but I am not aware that they receive any other support from the Colonial Governments. I attach very great importance to this subject of nursing, and more especially to the training of native women under the supervision of nurses sent out from this country. I. therefore, cordially recognise the value of the work done by the Colonial Nursing Association.