Sessional_Paper_1907 — Page 322

Ordinance 24 of 1857. Section 4.

Daily Press.

August 18th,

1887. Legis-

185 (62)

13. In 1887 the Board was composed of the Surveyor General (Chairman), Registrar General, Colonial Surgeon, Major DEMPSTER (Adjutant of the Police), Messrs. McEwEN, MAKSON, EDE, Ho KAI, H. MCCALLUM (Secretary).

14. In the latter part of the year 1887 a new Public Health Bill was in- troduced into the Legislature and after the fullest discussions extending over some months it was passed but by a suspending clause in the Ordinance it did not become law until it was notified that it was not disallowed by the QUEEN which notification was gazetted in May, 1888.

15. This Ordinance was the first which gave the right to the public of electing any representatives on the Board and the important principle was ad- mitted in the constitution of the Board by an unofficial majority.

16. The Ordinance enacted that the Board should consist of the Surveyor General, Registrar General, Captain Superintendent of Police and the Colonial Surgeon and not more than 6 additional members, 4 of whom shall be appointed by the Governor and 2 elected by the Ratepayers.

17. It is made evident the latter 6 should be non-official members, as the last part of the same section says "non-official members of the Board shall hold office for 3 years".

Thereby the unofficial majority of members of the Board was provided for.

18. In Committee of the Legislative Council, the Attorney General said

iust be remembered that the nominee of the Governor when once he lative Coun- has accepted Office and is a member of the Board is perfectly independent, and it must be borne in mind that the new Board will consist of only 4 official members and six unofficial members".

cil Meeting

12th August

Page 1. Page 2.

Ordinance 9 of 1895.

árd

415.

(20 54.

19. Mr. McEwEN said "there was nothing to prevent the Governor appointing say a Military man and so it is not certain that the unofficial element will pre- dominate", to which His Excellency the Governor replied:-" With regard to the Military man, the Military generally have their own Board of Health and I do not think it usual-I won't say it is against the law-to appoint one belonging to the garrison to such a Board as this".

20. The Board from this time consisted of 10 members and was constituted as provided for by Ordinance of 1887.

21. In 1895 a new office was created, viz., that of Medical Officer of Health and in April a Bill was introduced into the Legislative Conncil authorising the Governor in case there was no vacancy on the Board to appoint the Medical Officer of Health a member of the Sanitary Board.

22. This was strenuously opposed in the Council and in support of the opposition Honourable Mr. A. MCCONACHIE read the following quotation from the report of a Medical Commission appointed by the Governor to enquire into the working of the Medical Department of this Colony and which was received by the Governor on the previous day :-

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"That the Medical Officer should be adviser to the Governor on all Sanitary Matters through the Sanitary Board to which he should be attached "and on which he should occupy a seat. He should have no vote, bis duties on the Board being purely of an advisory nature it being undesirable that "he should enter into discussion on points on which he should be called upon to advise, his duties to be of a similar nature to those laid down by the Bradford Corporation and the City of London ".

23. The Bill became law and to mark their disapproval of the Medical Officer of Health being added to the Board all the unofficial members of the Board except. one resigned.