BRATTLEBORO, VT., August 3, 1907.

P. D. W. HILDRETH, E. S. WHITCHER, F. D. HATHAWAY, South Newbury, Vermont.

GENTLEMEN:-Yours of July thirty-first was received at my office during my absence.

In reply, would say that we regret exceedingly that the citizens and voters of Newbury so far forget their duties to the school children and the necessity of training them to respect the laws and to become good citizens themselves, that they hesitate to comply with the legal requirements for providing the means for the education of any particular portion of the children of the town.

The matter of transportation is not one that our Board has any authority over. That authority resides more especially with the Superintendent of Education. Neither have we the authority to erect school buildings, but are required to say that they shall be provided and built with reference to sanitary rules and regulations, of which you have copies.

We regret that we cannot aid you any further than that. It is a simple matter for your town to accomplish, but apparently you are about to spend as much in the transportation of your pupils as a new building would cost you, and then in the end, you have the same problem on your hands. We should advise that you seek to harmonize any local prejudices that may exist, and apply yourselves to the solution of the problem of giving the pupils of South Newbury the privileges of a school as required by law.

Yours truly,

HENRY D. HOLTON, Secretary.

BRATTLEBORO, VT., August 3, 1907.

MRS. H. D. DAVIS, South Newbury, Vermont.

DEAR MADAM:-Yours of July twenty-ninth came in my absence, also letters and petitions from other citizens of Newbury. We regret exceedingly that we cannot aid you further in your present troubles. We have no authority over the transportation of pupils; that, I think, comes under the authority of the Superintendent of Education, Mason S. Stone, of Montpelier. Neither have we the authority to erect school buildings, but are required to see that such buildings shall be provided with necessary sanitary regulations, and under the authority of law have promulgated rules and regulations for that purpose, of which copies, have, I think, been sent to you and the others previously.

We further regret that the voters and citizens of Newbury, instead of attempting to meet the problem of providing these accommodations for the pupils of South Newbury, waste their time and strength in attempts to evade the requirements of law and legalized authority.

I appreciate the difficulties that you, as a parent, labor under, and it would give me great pleasure and satisfaction to be able to relieve you of these burdens.

I trust that a little further consideration will bring your people to a state of mind where they will embrace the opportunity of performing their duties as individuals and as citizens. Yours truly,

HENRY D. HOLTON, Secretary.

BRATTLEBORO, VT., August 10, 1907.

SIDNEY JOHNSON, Newbury, Vt.

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DEAR SIR: In reply to your telegram, I said " you might use the old benches a few weeks and to see this letter." I desire to call your attention to this fact, that you will be required to furnish modern seats for the school building at South Newbury and you might as well use them in any temporary room as the old ones. However, if, while you are getting the new ones, you desire to use the old ones for a part of the coming term, you can do so.

Yours truly,

HENRY D. HOLTON, Secretary.

BRATTLEBORO, Vт., August 17, 1907.

J. J. SMITH, South Newbury, Vt.

DEAR SIR: Yours came in my absence from home and I hasten to reply. With regard to suspending the order condemning the old school house, we are unable to do that. The reports upon the subject are with the school board and health officer and you can see them at any time by calling upon them.

I do not know what you mean when you say, "the law should be changed, giving the Board of Health power to do directly what you are trying to do indirectly." We have no desire to do anything that the law does not require us to do and our order is entirely in keeping with that and no covert act or effort to do anything else is or will be attempted.

Yours truly,

HENRY D. HOLTON, Secretary.

BRATTLEBORO, Vг., August 28, 1907.

FRED C. RUSSELL, M. D., Newbury, Vt.

DEAR DOCTOR:-I am just in receipt of a petition signed by E. L. Whitcher and others, asking that the village school house be examined with regard to its sanitary condition and its safety, claiming that "the support of some parts of the building make some of the rooms unsafe." You will at once employ a good architect or a good builder, some man in whose knowledge and judgment everybody will have confidence, to make a carerui examination of the building and to send me a written report of his findings and recommendations, stating explicitly whether the building, or any part of it, is unsafe for occupancy. I would suggest that the person employed be a builder or architect from St. Johnsbury, or at least not a resident of the town of Newbury, that he may be an entirely disinterested party.

Please attend to this at once.

Yours truly,

HENRY D. HOLTON, Secretary.

BRATTLEBORO, Vт., August 28, 1907.

E. L. WHITCHER, Newbury, Vt., R. F. D. No. 3, Groton.

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DEAR SIR:-A petition signed by you and others, dated August 21, is at hand. I note that one portion of the petition claims that the supports of some parts of the building are said to make some rooms unsafe. This I understand to be the building in which pupils are to be instructed who are conveyed from other parts of the town of Newbury to the village of Newbury. I have directed that an architect or builder, not a resident of Newbury, be at once employed to make a careful inspection of the building and report upon its condition with regard to safety of occupancy. On the receipt of that report the State Board of Health will take further action.

Yours truly,

HENRY D. HOLTON, Secretary.

BRATTLEBORO, VT., September 14, 1907.

FRED C. RUSSELL, M. D., Newbury, Vt.

DEAR DOCTOR:-On August 28 I wrote you asking that you employ a good architect or a builder to examine the school building the children from South Newbury were to be placed in, and report to me at once the result of his examination. Up to this time I have heard nothing with reference to the matter. I sup

pose this was the building that we went into in your village, and that you proposed to have cleaned in certain respects. Let me know what you have done to it in the way of improving the sanitary condition, and ask the builder to at once forward his report. There is only a day or two in the next two weeks that I could possibly look it over. Yours truly,

HENRY D. HOLTON, Secretary.

BRATTLEBORO, VT., September 21, 1907.

F. C. RUSSELL, M. D., Newbury, Vt.

DEAR DOCTOR :-The enclosed report of Mr. Bragg speaks for itself. You will see that the suggestions are carried out in accordance with the rules of this Board. It seems that there is no trouble with the safety of the building and I could not add to the sanitary suggestions, so that there does not seem to be any necessity for my paying a visit there, as it would be simply to renew the suggestions already made.

Yours truly,

HENRY D. HOLTON, Secretary.

BRATTLEBORO, VT., September 21, 1907. E. L. WHITCHER, Newbury, Vt., R. F. D. No. 3, Groton, Vt.

DEAR SIR:-The report of Mr. Bragg, who examined your school building by the request of your Local Health Officer, under the direction of this Board, was only received this morning, and I hasten to write you, as I suggested in my letter to you of August 28. The copy of the report has been sent to your Health Officer, with directions to require your school directors to carry out the suggestions for the sanitary improvement of the building which are made in the report. It seems that there is no trouble about the safety of the building, so that all the rooms that may be required may be occupied.

GEORGE METCALF, ESQ., Health Officer, Westminster, Vt.

DEAR SIR:-Having inspected the well supplying water to the house of W. W. Bridges, we find it is situated on the edge of a swampy strip of land lying between the highway running between Bellows Falls and Saxton's River and Church Street.

A dwelling of Mr. F. G. Willard, just north of where the well is, should be provided with a sewer, which can easily be done by arranging to enter the sewer of Mr. W. Ober just across the street or to provide such disposition of his sewage as shall be satisfactory to your board. A reasonable time should be given Mr. Willard to do this.

We would advise that you have all the wells in that vicinity examined. When this is done let me know the result. Yours truly,

HENRY D. HOLTON, Secretary and Executive Officer.

BRATTLEBORO, Vr., July 25, 1906.

To the Local Board of Health, Shoreham, Vt., C. W. HOWARD, M. D., Secretary and Health Officer.

GENTLEMEN:-An examination made of your village yesterday, July 24th, with reference to the surface water and its disposal, together with the sewage discharged from the hotel sewer and sink-drain from other dwellings, as well as the general sanitary condition, leads us to make the following suggestions.

The dry-closets which are in use should be given such care as may be necessary to prevent their becoming a nuisance. They should be cleaned, the contents being removed frequently; dry earth or sawdust should be provided for daily use as absorbants and deodorizers; no sink-drain should be allowed to discharge into any one of them.

The sewer from the hotel which discharges into the marsh and small brook, when there is water enough to make a brook, should have the channel of said brook cleaned of all obstructions, weeds, grass or other things that may prevent a fair flow from the sewer; during the warm months a disinfectant should be used on the contents discharged from said sewer. For this purpose a pound of chloride of lime dissolved in five gallons of water, one pound of blue vitriol dissolved in the same amount of water in separate vessels. When these substances are completely dissolved, turn them together, stir, and add to the sewage, as discharged, a sufficient amount to thoroughly disinfect it for ten feet after it enters the brook. Do this every week. This disinfectant can be used in open drains with good results.

Manure heaps about barns should be removed every spring, and not allowed to remain to add their gases as they decompose to the atmosphere of near-by dwellings.

The surface water from the south side of the street, starting from the Kendall store and adjacent buildings, should be