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considerable yellow turbidity in the water, I at once drew off the water
which remained half-an-hour after the water was turned off, and
found on examination considerable deposit of a yellowish character,
which I believe to have been chiefly iron rust, as might be expected
in the first or last flow through an almost empty iron tube. This
condition frequently occurring is admittedly a source of danger.
Careful microscopic examination of the sediment failed to disclose
any living or dead organisms.
" Increased sickness, an incidental result of our short water supply,
has most likely been caused through the greater difficulty in obtaining
water for cooking purposes, and that also being, through storage in
open vessels in the living rooms, stale, and possibly polluted, throwing
people more upon the use of tinned cooked foods, which when first
opened may have been wholesome, and yet after a few hours'exposure
become injurious to health. In this direction we may look for part
of the increase in the number of cases of diarrhcea and allied diseases.
Although through the action of the Board in watering as usual the
roads and flushing the gulleys we have been, for the East, exceptionally
comfortable during the hot weather, yet there is no doubt that
w.c.s and house drains have not had their usual flushings."
In conclusion it is once more a pleasure to be able to thank the
Members of the Board and of the Sanitary Committee for the
assistance they have at all times afforded me and my staff in the
discharge of onerous duties, and to cheerfully acknowledge the
confidence with which without exception they honour me. The
courteous co-operation of the Board's whole staff is not less useful
and personally gratifying, and I can state unhesitatingly that it will
be my constant endeavour to preserve the harmonious relations which
for so many years have existed between us all.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
January, 1897. RUSSELL MAIN TALBOT.