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the oil into a can on the rookery, and brings the carcases down without 

 any care to the boilers, into which they are thrown, and boiled down 

 for the fat alone. It means that a family can take 1,000 birds for this 

 process, whilst the salters can capture only 500. The flesh of these 

 birds is nutritious, and readily finds a market, and Government has 

 been wise in regulating it. As time goes on the rules will have to be 

 made more stringent, but there isjno need to move too fast. The time 

 is coming when the number of hands birding on Chappell Island will 

 have to be restricted. The number of families grows as the half-castes 

 increase, and probably the limit of the workers has already been 

 reached. This island has always been looked upon as a sort of per- 

 quisite for the half-castes, and rightly so in his (Dr. Montgomery's) 

 opinion ; but the number cf half-caste workers must soon be restricted 

 in their own interests, and he was glad to note that the older men 

 have this year been suggesting that younger families should go to 

 Babel Island, on the east coast of Flinders. It is much to be desired 

 that the old birds should be protected whilst they are feeding their 

 young. At the present time it is the custom in February and March to 

 catch the old birds at night for consumption till the breeding season 

 commences. It is feared that many thousands of these parent birds 

 are thus caught. Doubtless it would be better to protect all the eggs, 

 but inasmuch as they are not now permitted to be sold, and as they are 

 only fit to eat for two or three days after they are laid, and are 

 supposed to be eaten on the spot, no great amount of harm can be 

 done. He imagined that the capacity of a half-caste cannot equal 

 that of the Tasmanian pure aboriginal, one of whom, it is said, was 

 seen to consume 52 eggs in one day. 



Several views, by the aid of a lantern, were then thrown on the 

 screen, whereby Dr. Montgomery illustrated the islands, the mutton 

 birds, half-castes, etc., and which proved very interesting. 



The discussion on Mr. Johnston's paper on the health of Hobart was 

 then opened by Mr. Mault, who spoke of ifc as a singularly able paper. 

 The speaker claimed that the general reduction in the number of cases 

 of disease was due to the passing of a Health Act in each of the 

 Australian colonies and its administration. The statistics given by 

 Mr. Johnston showed that the cases of typhoid fever should be fewer 

 in such an otherwise extremely healthy city. Sydney was in advance 

 of Hobart in that respect. He referred to how sanitation had reduced 

 the number of cases of fever in the old country, and insisted that if 

 improved results were obtained elsewhere, why not in Hobart? As 

 regards phthisis, emphasis should be given to the fact of Hobart's 

 freedom from it. The number of cases stood the lowest in the list of 

 all the cities instanced in all parts of the world. In respect to all 

 diseases connected with the lungs Hobart was the lowest of any of 

 the many towns he had mentioned, and the place should prove a 

 very fitting one for a sanatorium for consumptive cases. 



Major-General Tottenham said it seemed to him that there was 

 one other matter which required consideration as a factor in the 

 judgment of healthiness of a place or district, whether as to natural 

 or artificial conditions. He disclaimed any desire to decry or to fix 

 the stigma of unhealthiness on Hobart. He came to Hobart 11 years 

 ago hardly able to walk half a mile at a snail's pace, and his tolerably 

 known capacity in locomotion now needed no statistics to attribute to 

 the healthful air of Tasmania. It was a deep debt of gratitude which 

 bad impelled him to advocate so strenuously and persistently improved 

 sanitation in Hobart, in order that the health of the city— the 

 healthiest he had ever seen in the world, and he had seen a good 

 many— should be rendered still healthier. What he complained of 

 was the existence in past years of preventable disease unwarranted by 



