2 
work a 3 x 9 switchboard. Mr. Lee had been blinded in an accident some 
years previously and had been trained as a switchboard operator at the 
Gurney School for the Blind in Kuala Lumpur. He has produced his own 
directory in braille of the more often required telephone numbers and can 
take messages on a braille typewriter. The experiment is proving quite satis¬ 
factory. Mr. Lee is the first blind operator to work in Singapore. Thanks 
are due to the Singapore Telephone Board for converting the Department’s 
switchboard for operation by ear and touch, and to Mrs. E. Choy of the 
Singapore School for the Blind for various welfare services. 
II. LABOUR 
7. The labour force averaged 74 men, women and juveniles at the 
Gardens, 4 in the Herbarium, 55 in Government House Domain and 9 in 
the Nature Reserves. Health on the whole was good except that the epidemic 
of "‘Asian ’Flu” in May and of ’flu again in October caused sickness and 
absence from work. Eight overage labourers were retired and one labourer 
died. Average earnings of labour for the year were: Botanic Gardens $4.43 
per day, Government House Domain $4.42 per day, Nature Reserves $4.32 
per day, Herbarium $3.72 per day. 
8. The labourers’ lines were in general kept clean and tidy but the 
surroundings of the Indian lines had to be constantly sprayed with dieldrin 
to control flies and mosquitoes. 
III. TRAINING 
9. As recorded in paragraph 3, a botanist and a horticultural assistant 
were sent overseas for further training. The botanist, Mr. Chew Wee Lek, 
graduated b.sc. Hons, from the University of Malaya in 1956. He was ap¬ 
pointed Botanist to this Department on 1st October, 1956, the beginning 
of the University Year, and took up a course of post-graduate studies under 
the direction of Mr. E. J. H. Corner, University of Cambridge lecturer in 
botany and at one time Assistant Director of Botanic Gardens, Singapore, 
and under the supervision of the Professor of Botany, University of Malaya, 
and of the Director of Botanic Gardens. He went to England in September 
to continue his studies at Cambridge University on a Government Fellowship. 
He is working on the taxonomic relationship of Moraceae and Urticaceae. 
He is expected to return to Singapore in 1959 or 1960. The Horticultural 
Assistant, Mr. Lam Hin Cheng, graduated from the Serdang College of Agri¬ 
culture in June with the diploma of the College. He joined the Department 
on 1st July and was sent in September to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 
England to study for the Kew Certificate. He will return to Singapore in 
1959. 
10. Under the “Training within Industry” scheme four officers of the 
Department attended courses of instruction. 
IV. BOTANIC GARDENS ORDINANCE 
11. When the Government took over responsibility of running the 
Gardens from the Singapore Agri-Horticultural Society in 1878, a committee 
of nominated members was set up under the Raffles Societies Ordinance, No. 
7 of 1878, to control the Gardens’ management. It met last in 1929 and it 
