The all important question of sanitation and its attendant concomitants has, as in years past, received the close attention the Council, and under the able administration of Dr. Stanley matters relating to the public health have been carefully attended to.
In this department asin other branches of the Municipal Staff it is increasingly difficult to obtain suitable men locally to fill the subordinate positions.
Tu view of the recent advances which have been made in questions relating to anita: tion it is more than ever important that the subordinates in the Department should each in their respective degrees have received practical triining at hone. This of course tends to increase the cost_of working the department, but I do not think any one will deny that the extra expense thus incurred isa good investment for the Community.
siderable attention has been paid to the improvement of the new extension of the tlement by the filling in of ponds and lagoons which have been in time converted into mere cesspools, breeding beds for all manner of diseases, by the clearing out of main tidal creeks and the filling up of those portions of former creeks which have been cut off by buildings, ete, from the parent stream.
The steam disinfector at the General Hospital has by an arrangement with the Governors been transferred to the care of the Health Officer, and in future the disinfecting of bedding and clothing will be effected free of cost.
The new isola out hospital has been completed and is now in use.
The Victoria Nursing Home is nearly finished and will probably be shortly handed over to the Municipality. The work done by the present. nursing staff has been satis-Rictory and_points to the fact that in the immediate future with an increased foreign population the Home will supply x decided We have fortunately been singularly free from infectious diseases durin under review, The only serious trouble with health considerations. whi curred during the cattle plague which first showed itself among some hers brought down from Chink for use of the troops in the North, "This sickness spread to some of the dairies, but in the end was stamped out. A lange number of animals were destroyed, and many oth were treated with the methods of gall im munisition and antitoxic serum, the former proving the more ellice The improvement of laundries ix ¢ progressing under the new regutls the progress must necessarily b this also. A special comunittee of the Council was formed in October to enquire into the question of Laundries and discovered an Onganised resistance on the part of the laundry men to any measures for improved sanitation. To keep prices within reason, ist upon good washing amidst healthy surroundings and at the same tim i strikes on the part of the openitiv of no little magnitude.
It may not be out of place to here point out that we have no infectious hospital where foreign patients can be isolated, nor a lunatic asylum. Up to the present such ses as occurred have been treated at the General Hospital, but the increasing demand on the hospital' accommodation makes it more and more difficult every year to deal with such cocos in a satisfactory manner, and the Community will probably shortly have to consider the question of erecting a speci hospital for the treatment of infectious diseases and for the insane.
The need for a properly appointed and conveniently situated mortuary for the holding of inquests, ete., is also becoming apparent, and it is possible that, if funds will permit, the work may be undertaken this year.
Before leaving the subject of sanitation would call your further attention to the fact that, with the enlargement of our Settlements and the steady increase which is taking place is our population, the work of the health department is also rapidly increasing.
This will still further be added to when an improved gaol system has been inaugurated. It will therefore probably be necessary for the incoming Council to consider the advisability of obtaining the services of an assistant health officer.
During the year a new census has been taken of our population; this was fortunately done before the disturbances broke out in China, resulting in a great exodus of Chinese and influx of foreigners, The figures to be found in the report speak most eloquently of the advance which Shanghai has made during the past 30 years.
The foreign population is more th four times what it was in 1870. sind 50° more than in 1895, the total being 6,800) ents and 1,250 shipping population.
The estimate of Chinese shows an equally large increase. In 1870. the figures were 75,000, in 1895 241,000, while last year the total amounted to 345,000.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.