( 42 ) 
material for filling in purposes is dealt with, and in the explanatory text accom- 
panying the section the following sentence occurs, p. 17 , “ The employment of 
swamp lands in the vicinity of towns as ‘ dumping grounds ’ for refuse should be 
strenuously avoided, P or already such lands, in addition to being saturated 
with moisture, contain an amount of decaying vegetable matter.” 
In Belize every scrap of solid material is wanted for filling in, but the 
filling in should be properly supervised by the Board. 
Clearing of Bush in the Swamps and Town Lots. 
Belize had allowed itself up to this year to be overgrown by bush. 1 I 
readily assented to a plan of the Superintendent of Public Works, which had 
already received the approval of the Legislature, that the bush be cut back to the 
line indicated on Plans I .— 1 1 1 . The result of the clearance has been that the winds 
have for the first time been able to effectively penetrate to the back of the town, 
and houses which had been built into the mangrove swamp became visible. 
The residents living in the back of the town have welcomed the change. When 
the clearing work commenced in 1 9 ^ 5 > **• was found that owners of property 
had been allowed to let the bush in their lots flourish, and very numerous 
notices to clear had to be suddenly sent out. A repetition ol this is not 
desirable, for unless the money spent in the clearance is to be wasted, the 
cleared ground must be kept free from bush, and it should be the duty of the 
District Board to ensure that this is done. 
The odour arising from the mangrove swamp is often complained of ; apart 
from the unpleasantness, I am not aware of anything specific having been 
attributed to it that is based on scientific observation. There is, however, no 
DOUBT THAT THE FILLING UP OF THE CLEARED GROUND WITH DREDGINGS, AND 
THE CANALISATION PREVIOUSLY DESCRIBED, WOULD MAKE A VAST IMPROVEMENT, 
RENDER THE YARDS OF HOUSES DRY, AND AFFORD BUILDING SITES OF VALUE. 
Building Regulations. 
When I first made my inspection in company with the Superintendent of 
Public Works of the town lots in the back of the town, a feature which stood 
out prominently was the absolutely unorganised arrangement of buildings. 
The official town plans which we had were to a large extent useless ; what 
should have been open roadways had been blocked up by houses. Evidently 
there was no plan guiding the laying out of streets — houses were dumped down 
and unnumbered, the whole arrangement making it extremely difficult for 
proper sanitary supervision and inspection. Houses neglected and falling to 
pieces, with neglected Stegomyia breeding cisterns, side by side with those 
inhabited, produced the impression of very little systematic inspection, or of 
very little enforcing of the Public Health Act. The contrast in this respect 
to the older portion of Belize, or to what the Mexicans have done at Payo- 
Obispo, was very marked. 
If I might venture to offer a small criticism, as the result of visiting 
tropical towns in our Possessions, it would be to draw attention to the fact 
1 By Ordinance 19 of 1897, powers are given to compel owners to clean their lots from bush. 
In 1905 the Board became very active in the matter. 
