TOWN SANITATION. 695 
. health officers, and may take proceedings against infringements 
of their regulations. 
The Act requires each local board to forward annually a report 
to the Central Board. Any corporation, as a local health board, 
failing to impose a health rate, or to appoint a medical health 
officer when called upon by the Central Board, or failing to carry 
out any instruction of the Central Board, may be summoned to 
appear at the Supreme Court. In the case of district councils as 
local health boards, if they refuse or neglect to comply with any 
instruction of the Central Board, that board may do the thing 
required to be done, and recover the expenses incurred from the 
district council. 
The administration, then, of the Health Acts is greatly sub- 
divided, and is proportionately less effective. In proof of this 
inference, it may be stated that the report of the Central Board 
for 1888-9 says that, out of 173 local boards, no less than 112 had 
failed to comply with the Act in the simple matter of sending an 
annual report. In the same document it is further intimated 
that several local boards had been guilty during the year of so 
far neglecting to carry into effect their own regulations that the 
Central Board was under the unpleasant necessity of issuing 
peremptory orders upon them. 
The sanitary condition of all the towns, whether under cor- 
porate jurisdiction or under district councils, is therefore in the 
hands of their respective local boards. Leaving out of view in 
this report the city of Adelaide, which, with its numerous and 
populous suburbs and its distinct deep drainage system, certainly 
merits an exclusive report, the towns of South Australia range in 
population from 8000 to 500. The committee consider that a 
fair estimate of their sanitary condition may be arrived at by 
dividing them into two classes—-those situated on the sea-board 
and those inland. Of the first, Port Adelaide, Port Pirie, and 
Port Augusta may be taken ; while, of the second, Gawler, Burra 
and Clare may be selected to illustrate the position. The 
respective sanitary conditions of these towns will give a fair 
notion of the “town sanitation ” of the province. 
Port Adelaide. 
Port Adelaide was laid out in 1840, four years subsequent to 
the founding of the colony. It lies about seven miles west of the 
City of Adelaide, on an estuary of the Gulf of St. Vincent, called 
the ‘‘ Port River.” It is the chief seaport. The river is subject 
to tidal action. The “Port” may be regarded as consisting of 
Port Adelaide proper, lying east of the river, and the Semaphore 
lying on the west side. The population is about 8500. The site 
is low, and in many places damp, much of the eastern portion 
having been at one time covered by the tides. The river is now 
