Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony on the public health ... / Cape of Good Hope.

  • Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). Department of Public Health.
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony on the public health ... / Cape of Good Hope. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/300
    Report on the Public Health of the Colony for the Calendar Year 1906, together with Reports of District Surgeons and Local Authorities for the same period. in'scntci) to botl| fousts of Jnrliamcnt bn Commani) of Sis fen'll men (be {gobcvnor 1907. Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony. 55, Parliament Street, To the Honourable The Colonial Secretary. Cape Town, 15th June, 1907. Sir,—I have the honour to present my Report on the Public Health of the Colony during the year ended on the 31st December, 1906. In framing it I have had regard to your instructions that, owing to the imperative necessity for economy, the cost of printing it must be greatly reduced, and should not exceed a sum considerably less than half that which has been allowed in the past, and by rigid cur¬ tailment and compression this limit has not been exceeded. With the view to preserving continuity of the records of Vital Statistics of this Colony, which for many years past have been given in these Annual Reports and which are nowhere else available, I have thought it better to cut down the portion of the Report written by myself rather than to sacrifice the statistical matter. This con¬ stitutes a storehouse of information essentia] to the researches and the work of the Sanitarian, both now and in the future; whereas my report is at best but an ephemeral record of administrative details and of official and personal views, and is of little permanent value and probably of less present interest. Departmental De-organisation. In the latter part of the year 1906, following upon the recom¬ mendations made by the recent Civil Service Commission in its Tenth Report, very fundamental changes were made in the constitu¬ tion of the Office of the Medical Officer of Health. Up to this time he had been in name purely an advisory officer, although holding by authority of the Governor-in-Council the rank of a Head of a De¬ partment. In practice, however, by a slow and unavoidable process [G. 40—1907.] ' B