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juries, be so often wasted if nothing more is permitted to
result from these enquiries than the record of such verdicts
as "found dead,'' "died from a fit," and others expressed
in equally vague and unmeaning terms? It must, I
think, be conceded that the Registration Act, which ought
to enable us to render our mortality tables the most
complete and perfect records of the causes of death, is,
when ignored in the way described, all but useless for the
purposes for which it was designed by the legislature.
sanitary works accomplished during the year—
conclusion.
It appears by Table VI., Appendix, that as many as
800 houses and premises were inspected by the Surveyor
and myself, with very satisfactory results; inasmuch as by
a system of private recommendations and explanations of
the evils and consequences resulting from a neglect of
sanitary measures and defiances of the law, very many
improvements were brought about, and nuisances removed,
without recourse to magisterial interference in a single
instance. Besides these inspections, as many as 23 slaughterhouses
and 26 cow-houses in the sub-district were reported
upon after due examination, prior to the renewal of licenses;
and since then 30 bake-houses have been visited with
results equally satisfactory.
With regard to the great desideratum, drainage, we
seem to be in a fair way of having our best anticipations
realized. During the past year there have been no fewer
than 14,135 feet of new sewerage completed; and, since
the High Level Sewer is fast approaching completion, there
are good grounds for congratulating the inhabitants on