342 Timehri. 
In 1878, an elaborate Ordinance No. 3 was passed to provide for the 
sanitary administration of the colony. It divided the whole colony 
into :— 
(a.) Town Sanitary Districts, i.e, Georgetown and New Amsterdam. 
(b.) Village Sanitary Districts, i.¢., the incorporated villages. 
(c.) Country Sanitary Districts, 7.e., those portions not included in (a) 
and (6). 
Those Sanitary Districts created under (a) and (}) were administered by 
the Authorities already provided for them, and those under (ce) by 
Sanitary Authorities. 
This Ordinance created a Central Board of Health to supervise and 
direct the machinery and this Board remained in force until the passing 
of Ordinance No. 13 of 1907, when it was called the Local Government 
Board. 
By 1881 and 1882, the condition of most of the incorporated villages 
was described as lamentable owing to the restricted powers given to the 
chairmen of the villages under the governing Ordinance which precluded 
their getting any real work done; the pvor rate collection ; the heavy 
burdens for road upkeep; and several other minor causes, all of which 
contributed to dishearten the industrious villager, and make even more 
careless the thriftless property owner. ‘This state of things culminated 
in 1883, when, owing to the general discontent and dissatisfaction at the 
administration and the deplorable conditions existing, the whole system 
was changed by Governor Irving. Ordinance No. 4 of 1883 was passed ; 
by it the whole of the machinery for incorporated village management Was 
swept away and the administration placed under the Public Works 
Department and the Inspector of Villages as the Sanitary Authority under 
the 1878 Ordinance ; all village property vested in the Board of Villages 
was transferred to the Colonial Civil Engineer. Funds were provided by 
a two per centum rate levied on the villages, which rate was collected by 
the Inspector of Villages, and any deficiency made up from Public Funds 
voted by the Combined Court. 
Under this Ordinance the affairs of 15 incorporated villages (14 in 
Demerara and 1 in Essequibo) passed into the hands of the Public Works 
Vepartment, the number next year being increased by the addition of tive 
newly-incorporated villages, one situate in Demerara, three in Berbice, 
and one in Essequibo. On the Department assuming charge it found a 
large amount of work to be executed both of an extraordinary and 
recurrent character, and in the first two years of their charge we find a 
record cf much good work accomplished and a claim put forward to 
mark progress having been attained in both the sanitary and drainage 
conditions of the villages under the Department’s charge. In 1883 the 
population of the 15 incorporated villages was estimated at 28,142, and 
an expenditure of $45,058.72, or at the rate of $1.94 per head of the 
