X)E VEETEUIL — POET-OF-SPAIN. 
119 
should, as far as possible, remove all those causes which 
have a tendency to increase moisture, and to give rise to 
emanations ; we should not allow, on any account, the ac- 
cumulation of vegetable and animal refuse in the Borough, 
keeping in view that the salubrity of any town is the resul- 
tant of the salubrity of each private and public building. 
Government is the natural guardian of the public health ; 
and it is its imperative duty to take proper care that none 
of the causes of sickness which can be removed should act 
detrimentally to the public health. As those causes are 
manifold, manifold should be the measures devised to that 
end ; and they should be adopted simultaneously. The 
State should, however, proceed with prudence and keep in 
view the feasibility of any plan which it would think fit 
to adopt. Undoubtedly we may facilitate the ventilation 
of the town ; we may improve the natural advantages which 
the ground affords for draining every portion of the Bo- 
rough : we should insist on the speedy removal of all 
vegetable and animal matter ; we should insist upon suffi- 
cient space being allowed to each individual. 
The ventilation of Port-of-Spain may be said to be irre- 
proachable. Of late, however, and owing to a want of 
proper regulations, a few narrow streets and lanes have 
been laid out. This is apparent in that portion of the town 
which is comprised between the St. Ann’s road, Oxford- 
street, 11 la Tranquillite ” and the little savana. That 
section is badly drained and inhabited generally by a poor 
class living in wooden tenements. I have no doubt that 
individuals have been encroaching on the thoroughfares ; 
the mischief, I apprehend, cannot be remedied, for I do 
not see how the government or the municipality could in- 
terfere. There is no registry of the streets and conse- 
