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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 23RD NOVEMBER, 1878.
565
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general principles they have now put before me, I would be glad to learn that the Memorialists could see their to conforming to the essentially Chinese style of dwelling common both to Canton and Hongkong, and which, while economis- ing space to the utmost, admits of a certain amount of light and ventilation through the small square spaces left at the back called smokeholes."
T
I would call your attention to that last line again. It is a curious commentary upon all the air the criminal classes are deemed to require. I think, Sir, there are the names in this Memorial of some of the gentlemen connected with the Tung Wah Hospital. That institution, it was hoped, would be a credit to Hongkong. A gentleman well qualified to form an opinion of the Hospital, and who not very long ago visited it, when I inquired of him what his opinion was, wished to be silent, he did not wish to express what he felt. Had he done so I was given to understand the expression would have been that it was utterly abominable. That, Sir, is the state of one of the institutions in Hongkong.
His EXCELLENCY.-I did not intend, gentlemen, to follow my Honourable friend to-day, but to leave to other Members of Council the task of discussing the question which we are met to consider, that of Gaol extension. My Honourable friend complained at the last meeting of Council that I had brought forward the question without giving any notice to the Council, but in fact at the preceding meeting I had informed the Council it was my intention to lay upon the table, which I immediately did, the despatch of the Secretary of State, and then I said the Council would consider the requirements of Her Majesty's Government. That was so far a notice. But what am I to say to the topics introduced by my Honourable friend to-day? We are met to consider Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH's despatch on Gaol extension; but my Honourable friend deals with the drainage of the town, with the Water Supply Report which was sent to the Government in 1873, and not approved of, and for very good reasons, as I will explain presently. He refers to the Central School and to ecclesiastical influences, and finally winds up with a reflection on the Tung Wah Hospital Committee. Now, no notice has been given to me of any of these questions, but I personally take no exception whatever to the Honourable gentleman for not having favoured me with his intention to refer to these topics, because it is my business to be conversant as far as I can with the public business, and every subject he has referred to is connected with our public business, and he is fully entitled to express an opinion upon them and especially at this board. Therefore I have never made it matter of complaint that questions are brought before the Council without notice.
Honourable W. KESWICK.-If I failed in giving notice it was most unintentional. It appeared to me the subject was one of the expenditure of public money and I was bound to state Ly reasons, and give good reasons, for my opposition to the expenditure of money on a Gaol at Stone Cutter's Island, or otherwise on Gaol extension, when there were many more important matters requiring attention. To them I called attention as I thought they were fairly within the subject of the debate.
'His EXCELLENCY.-As I say, I think my Honourable friend is entitled to express his opinions freely. But at the last meeting I was reproached for not having given notice, and now we have topics introduced without notice, all of interest and importance and to all of which I will, with your permission, say a word or two. With respect to the water supply——
Honourable W. KESWICK was understood to explain that he had only referred to the report inciden ly to read an extract from it illustrative of the sanitary state of the town.
he same time it is important for the Council to know the nature of this rep‹
and the reasons
His EXCELLency.
why it was objected to---
The ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER.-May I be allowed to say that that was laid aside altogether in favour of a more modern project.
town.
I am now His EXCELLENCY.-For the Tytam Works, including the subsidiary water supply, £302,000 was asked. quoting from the Water Supply Report my Honourable friend Mr. KESWICK had in his hands. The estimates sent home amounted to over £300,000. Her Majesty's Government did not wish to have that amount of money spent in the Colony on additional water supply and for very good reasons. The Honourable gentleman referred to the drainage of the Even in one of our Ordinances, No. 8 of 1856, I find that the Surveyor General is entitled to insist that every house in this Colony must either have a privy or water closet, and we are told in this report the advantage of the water supply would be immense owing to its utility in sweeping away the house sewage. Now the water supply that might be so used, that might be used if the Ordinances of the Colony requiring water closets were put in force, is it a water supply the Chinese have asked for? No. What do the Chinese themselves think of the proposal? They have told me what they think about it. I asked my Honourable friend who his authority was and he mentioned the name of a high authority and a trustworthy gentleman, but what do the Chinese themselves say? They say "Nothing alarms us more than your projects of drainage and water supply for flushing house sewage. They are not consistent with our modes of living." And, furthermore, if the Honourable gentleman had elicited that opinion from the Chinese he might then have gone to a man like Dr. DUDGEON, of Peking, who has had many years' experience of Chinese life. He last year wrote a most valuable work on the diseases of China. What does he say? A European goes into any town, the smells at once affect him, he says "this is very unhealthy, these people must all be suffering from typhoid fever." But, adds Dr. DUDGEON, a little enquiry would show him that typhoid fever is very rare in Chinese towns. Why? Because, fortunately for them, they have not made use of the system of water closets. It was only, I think, a few months ago that the book was reviewed in the China Review; Dr. Dudgeon also favoured me with a copy. In the review that was then written the very passage in which Dr. DUDGEON denounces, and very properly attacks, the introduction of this so-called Western sanitary system into a Chinese population, was referred to. If my Honourable friend had gone to the Chinese they would have told him nothing alarmed them more than the idea of flooding their houses for the purpose of having water closets or underground drainage. The system by which they dispose of their house sewage is altogether different from ours. It is not by letting their excreta go into the drains that they get rid of it. Junks leave here every day with cargoes of it. It is carried away from the Colony. We know how they keep house sewage, kitchen refuse and sullage in covered tubs in their houses for a day or two or even longer, but the contents of those tubs is carried out of the Colony. When I came here I found it was put in pits at Belcher's Bay. That, of course, was very undesirable, but now it is taken away early every morning to the mouths of the Canton river and sold at a large profit. I am not prepared to allow any alteration in that system, unless, indeed, the Chinese themselves should ask for it; but, on the contrary, they protest against any alteration. To make an alteration would be extremely