[5]
The Health Officer.
Q.--I should like to ask a question. Have you visited any steamer which has recently come from Singapore with Chinese passengers on board?
A. I have not.
Q.-You don't know the sanitary condition of a ship arriving with 500 Chinese passengers ?
A.-I am absolutely ignorant.
Q.-Supposing you were aware that the condition of Chinese emigrants was totally different to any ship at home carrying emigrants, in every sanitary particular, and that ship came in with cholera on board would you allow (after the sick had been moved) the remainder of the passengers to go free now?
A. I can imagine the Chinese living like pigs in a pigstye, but I should imagine also that it would be in the power of the Health Officer to subject them to some process of cleanliness before landing them, as a work of ordinary sanitation.
Surgeon Colonel PATERSON then withdrew.
The Honourable F. A. COOPER, the Acting Surveyor General, examined:-
The Chairman.
Q.-Have you been in the Colony long?
A. Since 1888.
Q.-Will you tell us what you know of Stone Cutters' Island ?
A.-The whole of the island is reserved by the military authorities now except one small portion, marked on this map (map produced).
Q. What space is there?
A. It is about one-tenth of a mile wide.
Q.-How much is there in acres?
A. About six acres.
Q.-Would that be available for the erection of a lazaretto or quarantine station assuming there were no military objections? Could you accommodate 800 or 1,000 men there?
A.-There would be room for that number.
Q.-That is the only place on Stone Cutters' Island that belongs to the Colonial Government that can be made a quarantine station of?
A. Yes.
Q.-Could it be utilised? Do you think there is enough space for a suitable building?
A.-There is a space of six acres, but it is very near the Powder Magazine and it is open for ordinary traffic in the process of moving stores. It is very broken ground. A place could be prepared by levelling.
Q-Is there any other place--any island-which would be suitable for a quarantine station? Stanley has been mentioned.
A.-I have brought a plan of the Stanley Peninsula (plan produced) part of the ground is very level.