No.
627
HONGKONG.
REPORT ON THE QUESTION OF THE HOUSING OF THE POPULATION OF HONGKONG.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.
HONGKONG, May 14th, 1902.
SIR,
We have the honour to submit for the information of His Excellency a conjoint Report on the question of the housing of the population of Hongkong, and in compliance with the request of His Excellency in Council to prepare a Bill which might reasonably be expected to obviate the necessity for further Sanitary legisla- tion, for the next few years at least, we append a draft Bill on the lines indicated.
1. The insanitary areas in Hongkong have been formed, first, by the crowding together of too many houses on too small a space; secondly, by sanitary defects in the design of dwelling houses; and thirdly, by overcrowding of the inha- bitants in these houses.
CROWDING TOGETHER OF TOO MANY HOUSES ON TOO SMALL A SPACE.
2. The crowding together of too many houses on too small a space has been effected by the construction of narrow streets and lanes and by the omission to provide adequate open space in the rear of houses in the shape of back-yards and of back-lanes. The houses have thus been brought into close proximity to one another instead of being well separated with ample space between them. The conditions vary in intensity according to the age of the built over areas. The worst condi- tions are to be found where back to back houses have been constructed or where the lane between the rear of houses is not more than 6 or 8 feet wide. In either case neither light nor ventilation is accessible from the back, while only a very inade- quate amount is obtainable from the narrow street or lanc in front owing to the height of the houses being out of all proportion to the width of the street or lane. Similar unhealthy conditions occur when the rear of the house abuts on the hill- side with the additional circumstance that the house is rendered damp during the rains from percolation of water from the hill.
The best conditions are to be seen in the newest localities, more especially in Kowloon where the houses are separated from one another by wider streets and where back-yards or back-lanes and in some cases back-yards and back-lanes are pro- vided, but even here, though a great improvement on the old areas has been effected and, in that respect, the conditions are more healthy, yet as will be shown later the separation is not to such an extent as to prevent the areas when completely built over becoming more or less insanitary and bearing a resemblance in a minor degree to the insanitary areas of the older period. Between the old and the new localities there is every variety of density, and as the density of the houses approxi- mates more to the one or to the other, so do the insanitary conditions vary. Houses like individuals require a certain amount of space to themselves to be healthy, and
To the Honourable
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.
28 1902