[LXXXI ]
and abolished the Tung Wa, not only would a considerable number of patients that now go to the latter institution remain in their own houses and not come under our notice · till they were dead, but it is my belief in a very few years no matter how large the Hospital was it would be filled with bed-ridden and hopeless patients whom we should find a very great difficulty in getting rid of; for we could expect no assistance from the Chinese and should only have established an expensive incubus. Both the Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals and the Tung Wa Hospital get rid of this class of patients as those institutions are mainly supported by Chinese who can arrange it. There has been sufficient difficulty with the removal of Chinese lunatics not belonging to the Colony. We have now in the Government Civil Hospital a case of this kind who has been there for nearly two years, and under treatment his life may be indefinitely prolonged; he has no friends; we cannot turn him into the street and so he remains. The Tung Wa receives many such cases but they manage to return many of them to their villages or friends on the mainland. Without the assistance of the Chinese we should not only find this a great difficulty but a great expense. Another thing is we should be establishing a competition with the Alice Memorial and Nether- sole Hospitals supported by voluntary contribution and probably become the means of abolishing them, for the Chinese are business men whose desire is like the rest of the world to get as much as they can for as little as possible, and they might withdraw their subscriptions. At Shanghai or any other settlement they only go to a European Hos- pital if they prefer it. They can go to the Chinese hospitals in the native portion of the city. At Macao similarly situated to ourselves they have a native hospital similar to the Tung Wa, but kept much better and cleaner than it.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
PH. B. C. AYRES, Colonial Surgeon.
The Honourable
J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,
Chairman,
TUNG WA HOSPITAL COMMISSION.
No. 934.
s
SIR,
(Acting Colonial Surgeon to Chairman, Tung Wa Hospital Commission.)
GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL,
HONGKONG, 21st June, 1896.
In answer to your letter of the 19th instant I have the honour to forward the following statistics in three tables as follows:-
Return A.-Giving the number of patients who have died in the Tung Wa Hospital from the 6th November, 1895, to 11th March, 1896, who in my opinion it would have been desirable to have trans- ferred to the Government Civil Hospital.