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22
ACCIDENTAL, VIOLENT, AND SUDDEN DEATHS.
In the past year twelve inquests were held in this
parish, and verdicts returned of three cases of "accidental
or violent death," two of "sudden death," and seven of
"natural or natural and sudden death;" but, as usual,
medical testimony, (the chief element in enquiries of this
kind) was dispensed with in the majority of instances,
thereby setting at naught one of the statute laws of the
land—the Registration Act, which enacts that the true
cause of death should be ascertained in every case. It is
strange that a desire on the part of the county magistrates
to save a few medical fees to the county, (and instances
have been known of their having disallowed such fees to
coroners, even after they had been actually advanced by
them to medical witnesses), should place our law administrators
so justly under the imputation of being law
breakers in every sense of the term !
SANITARY WORKS ACCOMPLISHED DURING THE YEARCONCLUSION.
During the past year, as may be seen by a reference to
Table VI. Appendix, a somewhat large amount of sanitary
work has been designed and executed, and it will be
acknowledged that your able surveyor has been more
than usually energetic in the removal of nuisances, and
in the accomplishment of that sanitation which we may
reasonably hope is fast laying the foundation, so to speak,
of a high sanitary status for this rapidly increasing subdistrict.
Apart from the number of houses and premises inspected
by your surveyor and myself, there has taken