1569 are devoted to institutions in the Birmingham district. the police could do. Now that had come within The Birmingham General Hospital, the Queen’s Hospital, the area of the city he hoped it might be possible to arrange and the Worcester Orphan Asylum are to receive £3000 each; for a more modern system of drainage at the cottage homes the Worcester Infirmary and the Wolverhampton Orphan than had hitherto obtained there. R2000 the Midland Home for Incurables Asylum each ; West Kirby Convalescent Home: : New Quarters for Nurses. L1000; and RIO, 000 are set aside to 20 for provide pensions An addition to the West convalescent the blind poor of Worcestershire. The residue of the estate is important Kirby left in the hands of trustees to be utilised for charitable home for children, in the shape of a nurses’ home, was on 26th. Hitherto of the convalescent purposes and schemes and as the sum is very the respon- opened May part large home has been set as for the sibilities of the trustees are great, but money is wanted for apart sleeping-rooms nursing staff, so that the erection of the new confers a so many excellent purposes that their only difficulty will be quarters double on the institution inasmuch as it not in deciding how the residual estate may be used to the best advantage only advantage. affords the nurses a comfortable and admirably appointed Overcrowding in Towns. home but it sets free a considerable portion of the con- valescent home and thus will in future enable a larger I am glad to see that this important subject was number of children to be admitted to the beneficial discussed at a meeting of the Surveyors’ Institution which treatment which the establishment affords. Standing at was held in the other We know what an Birmingham day. the rear of the convalescent home, with which it com- effect not on the morals important overcrowding has, only municates by a box bridge connecting the second storeys, but also on the health of district and we know further any the new erected in three storeys, that much of the is due to the fact that it is building, comprises overcrowding 19 bedrooms and three well-furnished sitting-rooms, one on not possible to erect houses under the present regulations each floor. Altogether the building has cost R2600. It had materials and street formation at a which regarding price been arranged that in conjunction with the inaugural cere- will allow a fair return on the investment. It is interest- mony the of should pay the convales- ing and important, therefore, to note that some surveyors cent home the visit of inspection which is customarily are of the that are too opinion existing regulations stringent. arranged for the chief magistrate during his year of office. They think more particularly that those dealing with his of construction and with Unfortunately, slight indisposition prevented lordship materials those concerned road from the but the was formation well be if the minimum size and fulfilling engagement Lady Mayoress might relaxed, to act as his and the of the of window to floor good enough representative, Mayoress height rooms, proportion space, of Birkenhead was also present. The opening ceremony was and proper sanitary conditions were insisted upon. They gracefully performed by Miss Royden, the daughter of Sir think also that if their suggestions were carried out over- Thomas Royden, Bart. crowding in towns would probably be soon relieved by the erection of suitable houses in the suburbs, such erection A Year’s Health at St. Helens. being in many cases retarded or stopped by the cast-iron Dr. J. J. Buchan, the medical officer of health of St. Helens, rules at present in force. has issued his annual report on the health of the borough for 29th. 1905. The birth-rate was 36 - 05 which is May ______per 1000, again one of the highest recorded in the great towns. The death- rate was 17 ’ 21 per 1000-the lowest on record-and the LIVERPOOL. infantile mortality rate was 132 per 1000 births, which is (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) also the lowest on record. The prevalence of infectious disease was low, that of typhoid fever being the lowest in the records of the town. All these results are most satis- The Lord and the David Lewis Northern Mayor Hoqp ’tal. factory, the remarkable reduction in the death-rate with the THE Lord of attended Divine service at Mayor Liverpool low infantile mortality rate and the maintenance of a high St. Luke’s Church, in state, on May 27th, when a sermon birth-rate being specially gratifying. was preached by the Archdeacon of Liverpool on behalf of the Nem Baths at Wavertree. the funds of the Northern Hospital. The Lord Mayor was Opening of accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, members of the city The Lord Mayor, on May 28th, opened the new baths at council, and members of the committee and medical staff of Wavertree which have been erected at a cost of £25,000 an’l the hospital. The Archdeacon made a powerful appeal on take rank among the finest in the kingdom. The swimming behalf of the charity. The collection realised £12011s. 6d. bath for men is 75 feet by 35 feet and has a capacity for of water. accommo lation is West Union and its Institutions: Satis- 74,000 gallons Dressing provided Derby Inspector’s for 100 bathers. The section for women consists of a factory Report. swimming bath 50 feet by 27 feet, with a capacity of 37,000 Mr. Jenner-Fust, Local Government Board inspector for gallons, and dressing accommodation for between 45 and 60 the North-Western was at the of the District, present meeting bathers. Slipper baths, shower and spray baths, and a vapour West board of on 16th and at the close Derby guardians May bath, all for males, are also provided. The building is fitted of the ordinary business he said that he had every cause to throughout with electric light. congratulate the guardians upon the condition of its 29th. May ______various institutions. No union had carried further than they had the system of classification by placing various classes of paupers in different institutions. In that they had been, he WALES AND WESTERN COUNTIES NOTES. thought, in advance of public opinion but public opinion was now certainly moving in that direction. Such (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.) reforms, however, could not be carried out by large unions and he was sure that the West singly Derby union, The and South Wales Water Bill. which was almost, if not quite, the largest in the kingdom, Glamorgan must have found an alvantage in combining with its THE Glamorgan county council has only partially suc- neighbours. Personally he would be glad to see in its ceeded in its endeavour to provide a better water-supply for large cities the municipal area and the Poor-law area made those portions of its district which are at present only in- the same. He did not mean that the management of the differently supplied. In the Glamorgan and South Wales Poor-law should be handed over to the city council, but that Water Bill, which was read a second time in the House of a ooara or guaraians shoUla be eiiectect tor the city instead ot Commons on May 28th, the county council sought powers to several boards representing different parts of the city. Such create water districts and water boards somewhat on the an arrangement, he considered, would tend to efficiency lines of the hospital districts which may be formed under and economy, and there was reason to think that events the Isolation Hospitals Act, 1893, and powers were also might be moving in that direction. With regard to the desired enabling the county council to go into neighbour- question of vagrancy he did not think that the guardians ing counties to obtain water-supplies for the county of would be pleased at the new wards at Belmont-road being Glamorgan. The committee of the House of Lords which handed over to the administration of the police. He failed in the first instance considered the Bill disallowed the to see how much uniformity was to be obtained if the clauses giving these powers but permitted the retention management was to be placed in the hands of the police of those giving the council power to expend in any one authorities instead of being left to the numerous boards financial year a sum not exceeding &1000 in making inquiries of guardians. If guardians combined they would be able as to existing supplies within the county and as to possible to deal with vagrants in quite as satisfactory a manner ss sources of supply in the other South Wales counties and to cause