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Show r xxxvi FIFTY-SEVENTR ANNUAL REPORT OF disease. The deaths hare numbered 52, being less thau 2.4 per cent. This speaks favorably both of the skill of the treatment and of the sani-tary condit'ion of the sch~olsa, nd is also a strong argument in favor of the establishment of agency hospitals. for in theseschools physicians have opportunity to administer proper treatment and enforce sanitary regulations much as they would be able to do in hospitals. Of the 52 deaths, consumption was the direct cause of 25, scrofula of 2, and in-flammation of the lungs, 9; more thau two.thirds being from diseases which could not rrasonably be considered as the result of unsanitary wnditions. CONSOLIDATION OF AGENCIES. 0n)February 1, 1888, tpe Commissioner of Indian Afhirs invited the attention of the Secretary of the Interior to the coudition of the Qui-uaielt Agency in Washington Territory. In his communication to the Secretary he said : A11 reports reaching this office tend to showthat the agenoy headquartersis loaated on the ooean besoh, at a. point almost inaccessible to wagons or other mean. of eon-. veganoe or transportation. The agenoy buildiugs, never mbatant,ial or of muoh value, havsbeoome, through age, exposom to the dampnesaprevtplent there, and from want of repair, almost worthlessrains, totally llynfit or habitation and be~oodeoonamioalrss-toration. The Indii~usattachedto thot+gency,who number only about five hundred, ere peaceably disposed, industrious, self-snpporting, and do not require the constant preaeuoe of an agent. In v i o n ~ f e ltlh ecimimstanoeq Irespeotfully reoom- , mend that the necessary steps be taken toward6 abolishing Quiuaielt Agency, Wash., ss an independent agenoy, and oansolidating it with the Nisqoslly and S'Kokomish Agency, to be called the Poyallup Agenop (consolidated), and to take effect on the 1st d ~ y a Af pril next (that fractional ncoounta may be avoided). ' ' ' As this. consolidation wonld d d much to the labor and responsibility of the agent of tba preaent Nisqually and S'Kakomirrh Agenoy, and as the salaries provided by law for the two agencies it is proposed to couaolidate amonnt to 82;200 per annnm, I also. recommend that the salilrg of the agent for this proposed oonsolidated agency be. fixed at $1,600 per annum. On February 17,1888, the Secretary notified the Commissioner that. the President had, on February 15, issued an Executive order consol. idating Quinaielt with Nisqually and S'Hokomish Agency, as recom-mended by this office, and that the salary of the agent of the oonsol-idated agencies had been fixed at the rateof $1,600 per annum. The necessary directions for the proposed wusolidation were promptly issued, and the consolidation was duly effected. Under the consolidated agency, the aftairs of numerous bands of In-dians, located on five small reservations and with a membership of over 1,900, are now being conducted." The reserrations which are included in the new agency are no great distance apart, but, the country in that part of the Territory being very rough, they are difticult of access from each other. There is no large amount of property in charge of the agent, and hia pecuniary responsibilities are therefore not great. His principal duty 'See table of statistics relating to population, p. 410; and also tabla relating to ares, oultivatiou, eto., of lands, p. 430. i I |