1024 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 
SECTION II. 
I have now to refer to what Australia has to say on the progress 
of sanitary work among her numerous communities. I am 
persuaded she can say more to-day than she could have ventured 
upon saying even when this Association was founded ten years 
ago. We are certainly unable to boast of achievements such as 
characterise the movement in England and several leading Conti- 
nental nations, or in some of the United States of America; but 
we may, nevertheless, take heart, and rely in good faith upon the 
assumption that at least our steps are towards the rising sun. It 
is true we have all the scientific knowledge at our command which 
is in the possession of these older countries,and with this knowledge 
we have evidence in the many reports issued by State Health 
Boards of the presence of men amongst us who are not only 
conversant with every modern phase of scientific hygiene, but 
also keenly alive to the necessity of progress. But here, as in 
many other State affairs, sanitarians must wait upon the people’s 
representatives to afford them, by legislation, a plan of action. 
Every man who may in some degree be acquainted with the 
outlines of the history of Australia will be ready to admit that 
there is something to be said in extenuation of our backward 
position. The early days of colonisation were times of struggle : 
sustenance for daily consumption was the immediate and most 
pressing necessity. So soon as settlement extended, the question 
of communication and interchange came next, while the organ- 
isation of social order and defence from internal enemies followed. 
The city in which we are now met may be taken as typical of the 
early days of settlement. The first settlers on these shores landed 
upon virgin soil. They entered into the enjoyment of a delicious 
atmosphere, a mild winter, a delightful spring, and a fairly 
moderate summer. All their surroundings were undefiled, fresh 
from Nature’s hand. For fifty years they paid little or no heed 
to hygiene or sanitation. They brought with them from the old 
country certain ideas and habits, and however much England of 
a century ago began to leave these old ideas behind, the settlers 
here knew nothing better. Their descendants perpetuated the 
habits of the dark ages of hygiene. The increase of rural settle- 
ment, however, the growth of city life, the exhaustion and 
defilement of the water supplies, the pollution of the soil and the 
air, and the accumulations of filth and refuse, made deep and 
serious inroads upon the heaith and mortality of the people. They 
were compelled to pay some attention to the question of better 
sanitary surroundings. Sydney was founded in 1788, yet the 
sanitary arrangements sixty years afterwards were of the most 
primitive character. Up to 1850 the water supplies of a large 
and ever augmenting population were obtained from wells, or some 
