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14. The Protest next recommends the superssion of the Bill by fourteen different propositions, viz.:---
i. Efficient public drainage.
ii. Efficient house drainage.
iii. An out-fall at Sulphur Channel for the sewage of the city.
iv. Sewer ventilation.
v. Increased water supply.
vi. A flotilla of steam dredgers.
vii. Provisions against earth cutting.
viii. Reclamations and tree planting.
ix. Surface scavenging.
x. Abatement of overcrowding by the extension of the town.
xi. Prohibition of the sale of unwholesome food.
xii. Market improvements.
xiii. The spread of sanitary knowledge.
xiv. Efficient sanitary administration.
It is asserted that if the foregoing propositions are adopted the health and prosperity of the Colony will be secured. But long before this Protest was penned, the Bill which we have drafted had already provided either directly or by Bye-law for the realization of nearly the whole of these fourteen propositions or such of them as require legislative sanction. Dr. Ho KAI assisted at our meetings, took part in our discussions and was aware that we sought to give effect under the authority of the Bill to the programme which he has reproduced. Practically therefore we may say that the Protest winds up by advocating the adoption of the self same provisions so inconsistently condemned in the preceding sentences.
15. An inconsistency still more glaring is involved in proposition xiii. After having been admonished throughout the Protest for framing a Bill in accordance with modern medical and sanitary knowledge instead of in accordance with Chinese ideas we are now advised to spread medical and sanitary knowledge among the public.
16. Dr. Ho KAI objects chiefly, as we have said before, to the provision of adequate open space about buildings in order to secure the free circulation of air. This provision has, however, been commended by him as necessary in respect of any new building lots which may be sold by Government in the future, and we have his approval of the principle. But if he approves of the provision of adequate air space for new building-lots, as a hygienic necessity, is it not again inconsistent on his part to denounce this requirement in respect of new houses to be built on old lots?
17. In conclusion we desire to avail ourselves of this opportunity very res- pectfully to beg the reconsideration of His Excellency the Acting Governor of the expediency of passing the Public Health Bill with its separate By-laws in the forin in which we had the honour to submit it, in lieu of in its present shape with the By-laws incorporated in the Bill. Our recommendation if adopted would not retard unduly the passage of this most necessary measure through the Legislature, for so far we understand that any opposition there may be, is limited to one or two of the Bye-laws, and these might be discussed with ample deliberation at any convenient time after the passage of the Bill.
We have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient Servants,
The Honourable F. STEWART, LL.D.,
&c.,
J. M. PRICE.
PATRICK MANSON.
PH. B. C. AYRES.
A. P. MCEWEN.
T. C. DEMPSTER.
J. H. STEWART LOCKHART, HUGH MCCALLUM.
Acting Colonial Secretary,
&c.,
&c.