occupied, as usual, an inordinate amount of time in the way of inspection, correspondence and clerical work, the letters, and other communications received during the year being 5,891, viz., 2,560 in the North, and 3,331 in the South district. The actual number of complaints was 1,010, viz., 357 in the North, and 653 in the South contract district; while the orders issued for the removal of dust were 10,177, viz., 3,868 in the North District, and 6,309 in the South. The vexatious difficulties attending this important question led your Vestry to consider again the possibility of dispensing with the assistance of contractors; but no result has hitherto come out of the trouble that was taken by a Committee and by the Clerk of the Vestry to solve the difficulty. The same as with respect to the mortuary and the disinfecting chamber, the lack of a suitable site for the storing of the dust in the intermediate stage between the dust-bins and the final disposition of their contents, has practically rendered nugatory all the labour bestowed on the question. Towards the close of the contract year the complaints became so numerous that your Vestry not only employed a staff of horses, carts, and men to make up for the deficiencies of the contractor (and at his expense) but, also, imposed heavy pecuniary penalties. A somewhat curious result of this strictly equitable and, in fact, unavoidable severity was, that the new contractors for the North district expressed unwillingness to sign the contract, and did not sign it for a period of three months, during which time, as they preferred to set about their work in their own way, which only brought matters right after a considerable interval, the complaints in this district became very numerous, and the difficulty experienced in the first quarter of 1875 in the South district, was, in the second quarter, transferred to the North. But as not seldom happens, so in this case—out of evil came good, for your Vestry temporarily appointed, at my request, a Dust Inspector, whose services having given satisfaction, and proved very useful, have been permanently retained, thus affording a very much needed accession to the strength of the sanitary staff at my disposal. DOMESTIC WATER STORAGE.