75

H.—3l

Summary of Inspections. Infectious-disease investigations .. .. 2 Auction-rooms.. .. .. .. 4 Dwellings disinfected .. .. .. 2 Offensive trades .. .. .. 6 Dwellings and premises inspected .. 820 Creameries .. .. .. .. 5 Private hospitals inspected .. .. 1 Hotels .. .. .. .. 7 Complaints investigated.. .. .. 31 Boardinghouses .. .. .. 16 Meat-shops inspected .. .. .. 11 Schools .. .. .. .. 9 Fish-shops inspected .. .. .. 3 Stables ... .. .. 29 Bake-houses inspected .. .. .. 8 Aerated-water factories .. .. .. 1 Confectioners' shops .. .. .. 3 Fish-curing sheds .. .. .. 2 Fruit-shops .. .. .. .. 7 Fruit-canning factories .. .. .. 4 Dairies .. .. .. .. 3 Notices served .. .. .. .. 190 Grocer-shops .. .. .. 18 „ complied with .. .. .. 170 C. C. Winstanley, Inspector. A Review of Annual Recurrences of Typhoid or Enteric Fever in Auckland and District during the past Eight Years. Previous to the creation of the Health Department with compulsory notification, the only available data as to the incidence of typhoid or enteric fever is to be gleaned from an examination of the mortality records of the Registrar-General's annual reports. Thus we learn that for the four years previous to 1900 forty-six deaths were attributed to typhoid in Auckland, whilst fiftywas the record of deaths from this disease totalled by the three other combined centres. Computing the death-rate to have been as high as 1 case in 12, this gives an annual incidence of 138 cases for Auckland. By lines drawn to a scale of 1 in. per hundred cases the incidence is thus represented : — 1896-1900 ... ... ... 138 1901-2 ... ... ... 118 1902-3 ... ... ... 134 _ 1903-4 ... ... ... 78 1904-5 ... ... ... 87 1905-6 ... ... ... 68 1906-7 ... ... ... 58 1907-8 ... ... ... 197 ', — , Together with improved sanitary administration, the adoption of a separate service of night-soil-removal for infected houses, and disinfection directly under municipal control, until the introduction of a water-carriage system it would be wise for the Auckland Hospital Board to make provision for ninety-five cases per annum, the mean average for the past ten years. To recapitulate the reports of previous outbreaks of enteric, unfortunately of annual recurrence, we find that in 1901-2 the older parts of the city, more especially Hobson Street, Cook Street, Queen Street, and Freeman's Bay, were most affected. In these areas "the drainage connections were old and faulty, in addition to the sewers being defective. Occasional flooding of the cellars in the lo.wer parts of the city owing to the rising tide forcing the traps, more especially in houses built on reclaimed land, pointed to serious defects of sanitation." The adoption of model by-laws by the City Council, and the supervision of all building-permits by the City Engineer, as well as the demolition of insanitary property more especially in Cook Street, have improved this condition of affairs as then existent. Much remains, however, to be done. The main cause then was ascribed to lack of regularity in the removal of excreta and house-refuse with consequent accumulation of filth in back yards —unfortunately, as the records of the Police Court for last year show, not unknown in our day. With regard to the suburbs, the lower-lying districts, to which waste water and drainage gravitate, were most affected. Dysentery and infantile diarrhoea, kindred diseases as to their origin, and association with a polluted soil, were also of sufficiently frequent recurrence as to warrant one saying they were endemic in these areas. With regard to seasonal occurrence, the records of typhoid cases admitted to the Auckland Hospital compiled for the last fifty years indicate a steady rise from November to April, attaining its maximum in the latter month. This year the epidemic reached its zenith a month earlier, thus repeating the experience of other countries where "the hot dry months show the heaviest enteric bill." After a rainfall unprecedented in the northern province during a period of forty-two years, the first two months of 1908 were remarkable for the nearest approach to a drought within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. Coincident with this we had the heaviest outbreak of typhoid Auckland has ever experienced. Simultaneously with the appearance of heavy rains and the disappearance of flies, typhoid also has apparently disappeared. We cannot, however, altogether