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if the population be raised according to the estimated increase,
it will appear different, and the number of deaths proportionately
smaller.
One death from Small Pox was registered,—the first
which has occurred for upwards of two years.
The first case of death from Diphtheria was recorded as
having taken place at 13, New Nelson Street, on March 2nd.
PAVEMENT AND DRAINAGE.—SURVEYOR'S AND
INSPECTOR'S REPORTS.
Paved footpaths contribute towards sanitary purification
in two ways;—by preventing the soil about dwellings being
saturated with organic refuse, which during rains is washed
away into the sewer instead of being allowed to soak into
the subsoil; and by making the basements and foundations
of houses drier, and consequently more healthy and wholesome.
To effect the latter object, in every case the pavement
should be continued up to the houses themselves, or
it becomes to some an extent an evil; for if rain charged
with refuse matter, always abundant on the surface of the
ground in towns, be allowed to enter the soil, the entry of
the rainfall should also be permitted, to effect the salutary
solutions and chemical changes which eventually lead to the
purification of the soil, and the conversion of that which
entered the ground as refuse, into useful, and at the same
time harmless constituents.
Our paving as well as drainage has been considerably
extended in the last year; 68,404 feet of new paving, and
39,510 feet of old, has been laid, besides 19,937 feet of
kerb. Our drainage has been extended to the amount
of little short of a mile aud a quarter in length; 2588 feet
of brick sewer have been constructed, and pipe sewers to the