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January 23, 1895.1
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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ke the sting
likely to die, were sent there to take their the subject was so strong that he coulluative sentiment too directly. Practically chance, wholly unprovide l with the common leave the colony persuaded that they were the institution is der European super- Inecessaries of life.. In April, 1869, an "just as resolved as the Government to put vision already, for 'Dr. ATRES has of late
inquest on the body of a man who had died "down this kind of abuse."
been visiting it every day and directing there brought to light the horrible state of For the last twenty-three years moribund the traitmont of the more serions cases, things which existed. The late Mr. LISTER, Chinese have ben allowed to die in the and so far we have not heard of any objec- who was at that time Acting Registrar- Tung Wah Hospital amid surroundings of |tion being made. It would be impossible General, visited the place and at the inquestelesuliness and decency. The institution | how to go bick to the old state of things and described what he saw. The patients were
has served a useful and humane purpose, a further step forward seems to be compelled in such a state that the attendants, he and on the whole the committee may be by circumstances. It is well to fer to said, could not tell whether a man was dead congratulated on the manner in which it native fueling whenever it can s ifely be dona, or alive, until they shook him. There were has been conducted, barring their frequent hat when it is necessary to act counter six or eight rooms altogether, four of which attempts to usurp political functions, "with it it with generally by fmal th were occupied by patients at the time of his which side of the question we are at the nettle, if grasped firmly in will n visit. The first room he went into was not moment dot concerned. Of the Tung Wäh bigh enough for a man to stand upright in; | Hospital as a hospital, and judging it by the FINES AND IMPRISONMENT. its size was about thrée feet by four. In standard of living and of medical practice- this place there was a min on tressles and amongst the native community, there is
Not only the "O14 Volumes but the & Chinese bed. There were no windows, little but what is good to be said though imunity at large are indebted to the Aot- but a few slits in the
wall.
The bed judged by the standar of European hosing Chief Justice for his able paper on filled up all the room and on it lay a man pitals it is very deficient. There is now a Fines and Imprisonment, read before the who was
suff ring from diarrhoea. The feeling abroad, however, that the time has Society on Thursday. His Honour's conten. man was barricaded in, because he was arrived when another forwar i step should be tion is that when fines are imposed as a delirious, and at the time Mr. LISTER saw taken and that as the Tong Wah supplanted punishment for petty offens and are not him he was obeying a call of nature where the E-tsze so should European supervision paid, imprisonment with hard labour should
not be imposed as he lay, having no other place. The next supplant Chinese supervision in the Tung
an alternative penalty! roon was about ten feet by fifteen and con- Wah itself, so far at all events as regards To imprison a man for non-payment of a fine tained three people unable to surak or move. the medical treatment of the patients. At a is, Mr. ACKROYD contends, illegal, and he The meu were lying on Chinese beds; there debate which took place on this subject at supported his argument on this point by an were no mats, simply boards. The only the meeting of the Sanitary Board on Thurs. interesting historical review,
We cannot ventilation was through the door. The day last the Colonial Surgeon suggested that see, however, how anything can be illegal third room contained three persons, one the Board would make a miserable niess of which is authorised by law-as in most cases delirious and on dead; they were all dying it" if it interfered too much, because then is imprisonment in default of payment of together on a wooden slab and the floor was people would not go to the Tung Wah to fires-eveu although the law may at some. indescribably filthy. The next room con- die, but would die in their own homes. The previous period have been different from tained two persons lying on an earthen floor. idea of maintaining a dying house
what it is now, 13 Te.
The question resolves itself Mr. LISTER was told they were both dead, pugnant to European notions, but such an simply into one of expediency. Mr. ACKROYD but on the arm of one of them being raised institution seems to be necessary for the says that by sending men to gaol for petty the man groaned, and the coolie in atten- Chinese, and it would be a misfortune if any offences, such as breaches of municipal re- dance cursed bim in Chinese. Such was the thing should be done calculated to deter gulations, such offences having nothing state of affairs that existed at that time, the Chinese from removing their friends criminal about then, you make the men The late Mr. D. R. CALDWELL, who also gave when about to die to the Tung Wah, criminals. Very often it is to be feared this evidence at the inquest, said he had known because that would lead to worse evils, of the is so, but the question is, what punishment the E-tsze for twenty years, that he never character of which the disclosures in con- 18 to be imposed in lieu of imprisonment? A considered it a hospital, that the cases sent nection with the old E-tsze are sufficiently man who is fined for some peity offence either there were looked upon as hopeless, and that suggestive. The more immediate object; cannot pay or refuses to do so, and if he is he was perfectly sure there had been many for which European supervision of the Tung not to be imprisoned he must be allowed to go cases where men had been thrown into the Wah is desired is the obtaining of correct; free. His goods might be destrained if he had -teze to die and no attention paid them. statistics of the causes of death and the any, but distraints for small amounts are He explained that before the E-tsze was localities from which the cases come. The too cumberous a process to be of any built the Chinese had no other way of dis- importance of such information cannot be practical use, and in the case of Chinese posing of their dying than by placing them over-estimited, as was shown by the grave would in most instances be impossible. on the hills beside rocks, or building tom. consequences attending its absence at the MF. ACKROYD says it would be better to porary sheds over them, and that in n con- time of the outbreak of the plague, and let many offences go unpunished rather than sequence of the Government trying to dis- everyone must admit that something ought impris the offenders, and that in most cover those who exposed the bodies and to be done in the matter. On the one hand, cases when fines are imposed, for such taking steps to prevent it the principal it is not desirable that the Chinese should be matters, for instance, as fasteding to a ship, Chinese of the colony petitioned the Govern- frightened away, as it is said they would be the more arrest and a warnin, with the ment to be allowed to build a place for these if European doctors were placed in charge, loss of time involved in bing taken before people, and the E-tsze was the result. In and on the other hand it is imperative that the magistrate, would be suffici nt. Sup his speech at the opening of the Tung Wah all the cases adnitted should be as far as posing his Honour's views to be carried into All Hospital Governor MACDONNELL referred possible correctly diagnosed. It has been effect, what would be the result? to what had existed in the E-tsze and said suggested that this might be done by the municipal regulations might as well be at the disclosures had stirred the whole com-employment of native doctors with a Euro-uce repealed. If chair and ricksha coolies munity and led to an effort which had pean training. Dr. ATBES was apparently not ceased till it culminated in the work about to say something in reference to this they were then completing. He was thank-on Thursday when he was unfortunately in
ful to say," he continued, "there was a prospect that there should no longer be "these occurrences, which were a great dis- grace to any community, and which con- sisted in leaving the dying, just at the woment when human nature most nee led "assistance from relatives and friends, in a deserted condition. Such a state of things was a disgrace to all concerned in it. It was a disgrace to all who practised it, in "whatever part of China they might be. The Chinese had many virtues, but they had a certain fear, a superstitious feeling, with regard to dying persons, which led them to neglect the duties they owed to the sickly and feeble in their last moments, and this showed great inhumanity. Now, however, there would be no excuse for anything of the kind. The destitute had a right now to be admitted to this " hospital, and the fooling of the Chinese on
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terrupted by the Chairman, so that the com- munity was deprived of the opportunity of hearing what there was to be advanced against a system which has been often recom- mended but which for some unknown reason does not seem to meet with favour in official quarters. However, if for any reason the services of European-trained native doctors cannot be availed of, it would seem necessary that European doctors should be appointed to supervise the Tung Wab. And after all it might be found that the alarm of the Chi- nese would be less than has been imagined. Natives voluntarily attend the Alice Memo- rial Hospital in large numbers, although (or perhaps we should say because) it is under European management, and probably they would consume to attend the Tung Wah after the proposed change in the management there, especially if the European staff exer- oised due diseration and did not oppose
ito ar
knew that all they had to fear if they in- fringed the regulations ma le for the control of the street traffic was a warning, none of them would pay any attention whatever to the regulations. It is necessary in the public interest ther for that punishments should be made deterrent. Take the case cited by Mr. ACKROYD of a inerman fined twenty- five dollars for illegally fastening on steamier coining into the harbour, with the alternative of so many weeks' hard labour. The offence is ascribed by his Honour to the offender's too great eagerness honestly to earn his daily bread, and from this point of view it certainly seems hard to send him to gaol. But an attempt to get ahead of competitors by infringing it can the law while they are obeying hardly be correctly described as honest. More than that, however, the offence re- ferred to is one which it is necessary to suppress in the interests of the safe naviga- tion of the harbour, and this can only be done by imposing exemplary and deterrent