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near Cox's Creek bridge ; to take the effluent-pipe well out into the tide ; and, pending the completed installation of water-closets throughout the borough, to empty and flush down the contents of the present collecting-carts through the grit-chamber into the tank. The depot of the Auckland Sanitary Company was relinquished, to the great satisfaction of the immediate residents. A requisition was issued to cause the premises to be put in a sanitary condition. The offal-treating works at the City Abattoirs were shut down mainly from commercial reasons. A good work was being done by them, though, as usual, people in the neighbourhood preferred the evil they knew not of—meat prepared amidst foul surroundings rather than accept without complaint the lesser evil of the odour incidental to all such works —and that too produced by the efficient destruction of much that goes to make up those objectionable conditions. ' recurrent cases of enteric fever in two houses at different parts of the borough called for drastic remedying of the drainage systems. 'A report upon one of these houses, from which two cases had been notified, both fatal in termination, contains the following : " Certainly I do not wonder at the unfavourable opinion held in regard to past drainage-work in and around Auckland if the drain I saw be a sample. From the yard gully-trap to the street can be seen the following : The spigots of some of the 4 in. pipes are damaged, it is doubtful if they were ever sound ; a 3 in. pipe has been jockeyed in between two 4 in. pipes, neither here nor elsewhere has cement been used to form sound joints ; all the joints are open, no packing whatever ; straght pipes are used to get round a sharp bend, with the result that the unpacked joints become still more open, sewage, of course, must have escaped at these joints, thus polluting the whole track of the drain. A junction-pipe is laid to run slighty up-hill, and into one 4 in. limb it has the 3 in. spigot of the next house-drain pipe simply inserted, no packing or cementing. The whole work is a disgraceful example of criminally bad drain-laying. Your Council have ample justification for regarding this case as one of emergency, and I recommend the procedure in pursuance of section 50 of ' The Public Health Act, 1900.' " With commendable and unhesitating vigour both premises above referred to were attended to by the Council. It is worthy of notice that I am given to understand this drainage-work had been carried out in the past under a borough contract. Paenell Borough. Sanitary by-laws in Parnell are " popular." The reason is not far to seek. Burgesses, councillors, officials of the Council, pay no heed to such trifling things as standards for local government. Last year it was found necessary to inform the Council that one by-law was being disregarded, even by members of the Council. This year I wrote reporting the result of one short inspection, and instancing the breaking of not fewer than six by-laws under the very eyes of the Council and their inspector. No refutation has yet been received, nor have the Council asked their officers to explain their action. There is much that tends to detract from the virtues of municipal government in these few facts. To get over the difficulty of the nightsoil service already alluded to, the Council have by by-law required the fixing of water-closets throughout their borough. In the early future it will be necessary to place sewage-disin-tegration or " septic " tanks at the terminal of each sewer-line to prevent the pollution of the harbour. Devonport Borough. The Stanley Point drainage scheme has been submitted to a poll of ratepayers, carried, and is now being completed. With a view to improving the condition of stables throughout the borough, the Council desired me to inspect thirteen of these and to submit recommendations. These were forwarded in pursuance of section 72 of the Public Health Act. The Council now propose taking legal proceedings against all who have not abated the nuisance in the manner specified in the requisition. The result of such action will be of inestimable value as a guide on future occasions. Amongst Auckland local authorities the Devonport Borough Council has taken the lead in this matter. Two certificates*relating to dilapidated buildings have been issued. Newmarket Borough. The Council having obtained the recommendation of the District Health Officer, and the approval of the Hon. the Minister, are obtaining a loan for £2,000 to be spent on an extension of the sewerage system of the borough. It ought to be soon in course of construction. Having infringed the open-space sections of the Municipal Corporations Act a builder was called upon to alter his buildings. As he readily complied with the request the Council did not proceed with the enforcement of the penalty " not exceeding £20 " for such infringement. The nightsoil service is here a source of great complaining. All Newmarket's troubles, and they are many, would be simplified by union with the city. Onehunga Borough. Failing to receive amicable consideration from the Council, the Mount Koskill Road Board were forced to take action under their new by-laws against the Onehunga nightsoil contractor. At the first trial judgment was given for the contractor ; a second prosecution before Mr. R. M. Dyer, S.M., ended in the contractor being fined and ordered to pay the costs, and the Magistrate held that the by-laws were not unreasonable —the point upon which the first action had failed. The sewerage scheme is hung up through inability to raise the large sum of money required under the loans to Local Bodies Act. I addressed the Council upon the advisability of ending the nightsoil-service trouble and starting the sewerage scheme in one move by putting in the sewerage-tank so that the nightsoil-carts might be emptied thereinto, as proposed already for Grey Lynn. Later the sewers might be extended from the tank throughout the borough. No action was taken. Certificates condemning three buildings were issued. One has been removed.