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:
- [1908]
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.
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![XV] 1 Three new Village Management, Boards were established during 1908 under the Villages Management Act, 1881, namely, Alieedale, over which area there had previously been a Local Authority appointed under Section 13 of Act 23 of 1897 ; Merweville ; and Mount Fletcher in the Native Territories. During the 1908 Session of Parliament a Bill was introduced by the Govern¬ ment to abolish the Divisional Council of the Cape and to establish a Rural Council over the extra Municipal portion of the Cape Division. This Bill, however, was not proceeded with. In this year also an additional Divisional Council was formed in the Division of Kuruman. Every portion of the area of the Colony Proper is now under some form of local administration, either Municipal, Village Management Board or Divisional Council, with the exception of the two Native Districts or Reserves of Herschel and Glen Grey, but the latter is under a modified form of local govern¬ ment in the shape of the Glen Grey District Council. In both of these Districts, however, the Magistrate is, for all health purposes, the Local Authority. Consolidation of Local Government Laws. The whole of the Statute Law of the Colony relating to Local Government requires considerable consolidation and amendment, and as a matter of fact two draft Bills have been for long past under the consideration of successive Govern¬ ments, one measure being to consolidate and amend the law relating to Munici¬ palities and the other to consolidate, amend and extend the law relating to Public Health. The Statutes dealing with the powers and duties of Local Authorities are very numerous, they overlap one another, and are often contradictory, in¬ consistent, vague and difficult of. correct interpretation. Above all things it is most important that some' of the powers of Local Authori¬ ties should be better circumscribed and controlled, and to this end it is necessary that the functions of the Government or Central Authority should be laid down and reasonable powers afforded for carrying them out. Many of the difficulties and irregularities which we see from time to time arise in the course of the administration of Local Authorities would be obviated had the Government been provided with some restraining powers. At the present time such supervision of Local Administration as is attempted by the Government has but little statutory authority behind it and depends mainly for its success upon the friendly relationship existing between the Department and Local Authori¬ ties. This, of course, should be the basis of all intercourse between the Government and Local Bodies, but it cannot entirely supply the place of a definite statutory locus standi. THE ANNUAL REPORTS OF DISTRICT SURGEONS AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES. With regard to the Public Health, I have already dealt broadly with the state of the general health of the Colony during the year 1908, when discussing the statis¬ tics relating to Births and Deaths, and in addition to this there will be found printed among the Annexures to this report carefully prepared extracts of the Annual Reports of District Surgeons and Local Authorities on the health during the year of their respective districts. These, taken together with the detailed Births and Deaths statistics in the Annexures, pages 21 to 113, will furnish the enquirer with all available information regarding any particular district. I may mention that these local reports are dealt with in this office before their publication here, and all matters mentioned in them which appear to require special action are referred to the proper quarter with such recommendations as are considered necessary for effecting improvement. This has involved extensive correspondence with Munici¬ palities, Village Management Boards, the Superintendent-General of Education, Resident Magistrates and other Government Departments, but resulting in a large proportion of the defects mentioned in the individual reports being remedied. General Improvement in Local Sanitary Administration. It is satisfactory to be able to report that Local Authorities throughout the Colony are attaining an increasingly better standard of health administration, and this cannot fail to be reflected in a diminished rate of sickness and mortality. Nevertheless, most of them have yet a long way to travel before they reach any¬ thing approaching a thoroughly satisfactory position. It must, however, be admitted ttat Local Authorities in South Africa, while they escape many of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31482041_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
