December 4, 1895.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
fever to be typhoid in its character or deli-quences become manifest before. Given two berately express a preference for porous alleged causes for one set of consequences the blue bricks to glazed earthenware pipes as layman may be in as good a position as a doctor a material for making drains of. It is true
to form an opinion as to which is the real the word " typhoid is not used in the
cause when he knows that one of the letter, but as the writer says the fever is alleged causes has been in existence for caused by the drains we must assume that years without producing the consequences that is what is meant
in question while the other is of unusual and spasmodic occurrence and has always previously been followed by similar conse- quences.
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at once removed, legislation being passed for the purpose necessary, and the Goy ernor should display the courage of his opinions and insist on surfi.ce drains for the Chinese quarter. Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON has already publicly expressed himself. in favour of the surface
system and if he insisted on its being adopted. he would have the support of public opinion. In some cases, owing to the respective levels of the houses and the adjoining streets, underground pipes might be necessary, because, as the Director of Public Works thoughtfully reminded us lately in one of his reports, water cannot be made to run up bill, but so far as possible the sewage should be led clear of the houses above ground and discharge itself into the many sewers at a safe distance. The separate system is an improvement on the old combined system and the substitution of surface drains for the house connections in Chinatown would be a further improvement. As to the Peak, it ought to be possible to get rid of the smells from the drains there by some means, but, taking things as they are, it is a large and un- warranted assumption to say that the drains are the cause of the fever prevalent in the district.
THE COMMERCIAL MISSION.
Our drainage system is still very far from perfect, and we believe that grave mis- takes have been made in regard to it, but it is in a far better condition than it was Physician " refers in his letter to the formerly. Stenches still prevail, but that report of the Fever Commission. A re- is said to be because the old system has not ference to that report cuts the ground from yet been altogether done away with. The under his feet. He says that in the im- Governor in his speech the other day said :- proved drainage system is "the true cause "A special inspection of the drainage of "of our present unhealthy condition." Now private premises was made in the early the Fever Commission sat in 1888, before part of the year and revealed a most in- the new drainage system' had been in sanitary state of affairs as regards the old augurated, and it was appointed in com- drains, whereas the drainage of those pliance with a petition by the residents of premises in which the new system has the Western District, in which fever was "been introduced was found to be in at that time unusually prevalent. The "excellent condition.' "Physician" may say Commissioners in their repart find that "the of that statement, as he does of another, that "chief cause of the petition being sent in "whoever is responsible for it, the paragraph was the smells experienced in the Western
"District." "above quoted is emphatically erroneous
Physician" would have us "and misleading," in other words, that His believe that smells have only arisen since Excellency's professional advisers bave con- the drainage was improved. What the spired to deceive him; but that is a conclu- Commissioners found by a house to house in- sion that cannot be accepted by reasonable spection in the district was that the older minds without sufficient proof. In con-houses might be said generally to be in an un- sidering whether the present year can satisfactory condition. In some instances the be regarded as on the whole a healthy drains were for the most part open, but the
Cold water is thrown by the Rangoon one, notwithstanding the fever, we cannot bricks were blue and consequently unsuit- Gazette on the project initiated by the go much behind the statistics. "Phy-able owing to their porosity; the bricks, Blackburn Chamber of Commerce of send- sician accounts for the low death rate by moreover, were badly laid and frequently ing out a commercial mission to China. the very old and very young, the feeble or displaced by the roots of banyan trees. The Our contemporary, commenting on the state- worn out members of the community, hav-ground in the neighbourhood of such drains ment made by the Chamber that it is ‘im- ing been swept away in last year's epidemie; was sodden for a considerable depth and possible to read the reports of our Consuls but unfortunately for that argument the a mass of black filthy soil obtained. in China without being struck by the absolute classes named constitute but a small propor- some instances again the houses were in want of effort shown by Western nations tion of the population of Hongkong, which i direct communication with the main sewer, in opening out the trade of that country, is mainly made up of able bodied men. there being no attempt, or but an imperfect says that "This is a sweeping condemnation, Without wandering into a wilderness of one, at trapping or disconnection. The sur- "but is scarcely warranted by facts. Short aimless arguments with reference to the pre-face traps generally were very defective. "of annexing or protecting China it is "difficult to see what more could have cise significance of the death statistics, how These and other facts, which we need not ever, there can be no doubt that there has reproduce in detail, taken in conjunction been done than has been done in the way been an unusual amount of fever this with the inadequacy of the main sewer ven- "of forcing China to break down the old "barriers of exclusiveness and open the year, and that the Peak has suffered as tilation, were regarded by the Commissioners well as the lower levels, and perhaps more
with much concern. And that is the ideal "country to foreign trade." This is sur- severely. The Governor ascribes the fever state of affairs to which Physician" would prising, especially on the part of a paper to the drought, "Physician to the drains. have us return.
like the Rangoon Gazette, which is to some Now it has long been recognised by medical Underground drainage is under the best extent in direct touch with Chinese affairs. What more could be done, indeed? Why, practitioners in Hongkong that an unusually available conditions attended with some dry summer brings an unusual amount of danger, and no system can be pronounced the waterways of the Empire, especially the sickness, and the summer this year having perfect, but to condemn the separate system West River, could be opened to stea been the driest on record it was to be ex- as inherently inferior to the combined sys- navigation and foreign trade, and compliance pected, if there is any foundation for the tem seems simple nonsense. There may be with the transit pass regulations could be theory of the doctors, that the health conditions of climate and local circumstances enforced. We do not suppose that the of the community should suffer. On the under which the combined system may meet mission when it arrives will make any other hand, in opposition to the theory the requirements and the separate system be startling discoveries, but it will focus the that the sickness is caused by the drains, a superfluity, but speaking generally the information that has been collected by the we have the fact that fever was much separate system is undoubtedly the safer of Consuls and the Commissioners of Customs, more prevalent in the colony, and hundreds the two. In Hongkong the difference is will be impressed with its importance, and
athis, that whereas formerly the sewage was
its return will be able of times more fatal, before there was
to bring to bear upon the Government regular drainage system of any kind. It may led from the houses through defective brick pressure be said that does not apply to the Peak, be- drains into the storm water drains, where it to carry into effect the recommendations cause that district has only become populated was allowed to trickle over a wide sectional that have been unavailingly made times within the last fifteen years, and up to the area undergoing a process of fermentation without number. Consul after Corsul has present year good health has prevailed there. and putrefaction on its way, it is now con- reported on the possibilities of trade develop- It is a fact, however, that the first sanitarium veyed to the sea in glazed earthenware pipes.ment at different points, but their utterances at the Peak was abandoned on account of Howany one can maintain that glazed earthen- have been as the voice of one crying in the Not quite, however, for they its supposed unhealthiness, and that fever ware pipes are inferior conduits for sewage wilderness.
have reached the Blackburn Chamber of has never been entirely absent from the to the large storni water drains, where some- Hill District any more than from the lower times for six months at a stretch not a drop Commerce, which is now soliciting the co- levels. It may be open to question whe- of rain water enters to wash it away, passes operation of the other principal Chambers ther it was desirable to introduce a our comprehension. But the storm water of the United Kingdom, and when the mer- drainage system at the Peak, though it drains still receive a considerable amount chants and manufacturers of Great Britain is not easy to see how the large popula- of sewage, because the new system has not take united action the Government will be tion now resident there could very yet been universally applied. It is time compelled to move. It is not information well get on without one. However that for the Government to cease halting between that is lacking, but the concentration of the may be, the Peak drainage system has now two opinions and grapple with this matter information and its transformation into effec- been in existence some years, and the ques- firmly. The insanitary state of affairs as tive power. To use a metaphor, the infor- tion suggests itself, if the drainage is respon- regards the old drains, to which the mation already collected, and available is sible for the fever, why did not the conse-Governor referred in his speech, should be like a stack of fuel capable of generating
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