168
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
notes and reference is facilitated by a com. plete index of subjects. The book is a pro- duction on which the publishers may be con- gratulated and which no one interested in the political or commercial relations of foreign countries with China can afford to be without. We would suggest that a supplementary volume should be issued embodying the instruments to the omission of which reference has been directed above.
THE POLICE SCANDAL.
INSPECTOR BAKER DISMISSED.
-On 23rd Aug. Juspector Baker was dismissed from the Police Force for gross neglect of duty in not discovering and in not reporting an un- lawful common gawing house at No. 2. Wa Lane. Inspector Baker has been in the local Force over twenty-four years and his dismissal was the outcome of a private inquiry held by Hon. F. H. May. Captain Superintendent of Police, and Mr. H. L. Dennys. Crown Solici-
August 26, 1897.
DR. CLARK ON ENTERIC FLVER.[ by one bond of allegiance as soldiers of Her
Majesty the Queen Empress.
The following report on certain cases of enteric fever was laid before the Legislative Council on 23rd Ang. :-
Sanitary Board Offices, Hongkong. 20th Angust, 1897. Sir-I have the honour to submit, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, the following report concerning the cases of enteric ferer which have occurred in the colony during the current year :-
are justified in hoping that the effects of this 5. Her Majesty's Government feel that they exceptional military gathering will be perman- ent, and that the Imperial and National interests, which have been by this means so minds of all classes of Her Majesty's subjects, forcibly illustrated and brought home to the
will now be realized in a manner that has been scarcely possible before. They can hardly doubt that the events of the last few weeks will hare done much to knit closer the bonds of union between the Colonies
presence of the Colonial Troops will have and the Mother Country, and to this end the
Fifty-six cases have been reported to me, of which forty-three were Europeaus, seven were Chinese, five were Japanese and one un Indian; of these fifty-six cases, ninoteen were imported into the colony by the shipping, leaving thirty-largely contributed. seven cases to be accounted for locally, twenty-
6.- will only add, in conclusion, the ex- seven of which were of Europeau nationality. pression of my hope that the troops will carry In some of these, it has been impossible to trace. with them to their homes pleasant memories of with any degree of certainty, the source of the their visit, and that their stay in this country infection, and in such I have been compelled to fall back upon the theory of an infected food-structive, and I feel confident that in years to will have proved not only agreeable but in- supply of Chinese origin; in the series of Eu- ropean cases, however, which occurred during the month of June, it is very clear to my mind that they must have had some connection with the milk supplied to these persons, and this conviction became more certain when I proved that such milk-supply was in part derived from Chinese sources, and that these sources were extremely liable to cantamination, owing to the A DISGRACEFUL CASE OF MILK adulteration of the milk with water. In a report
tor.
DETECTIVE-SERGEANT HÖLT DISMISSED, On 24th Ang. Detective-Sergeant Holi was dis- missed from the Police Force, the reasons given by the Captain Superintendent of Police being that he neglected to report common gaming house at No. 2. Wa Lane and that he received bribes from the same house.
ADULTERATION.
At the Magistracy on Saturday, 21st Aug, before Hou. II. E. Wodehouse, Tang Chin Ki. the owner of a cattle shed at No. 1, Kennedy Street, was summoned at the instance of Dr. Clark, Medical Officer of Health, for selling to Inspector J. T. Cotton, an article of food, to wit, twelve ounces of milk, which was not of the nature, substance, or quality of the article demanded by the purchaser.
J. T. Cotton, Inspector of Nuisances said- On 7th inst., at 3.15 a.m., I visited No. 1. Kennedy Street, Wanchai, acting under written instructions of the Medical Officer of Health. I saw seven cows in a shed belonging to the defendant. I also saw two tius of about 5
gallons capacity. I asked defendant for one pint of fresh cow's milk. He told me he had none bottle. I asked him to fill me a pint from one of the cans. He poured the milk into threa onnce bottles. I then tendered eight cents and told him I was going to hay the milk analysed.. I sealed the bottles in his presence with the Sanitary Board stamp. I asked him to retain one in his possession. 1 asked him to whom he sup- plied the milk; he said he supplied it to Mr. Kennedy. I went down Queen's Road : East, and waited till the man left with the two tias. and shadowed him all the way to Mr. Kennedy's place at Garden Road, I then returned home and locked the two bottles in my desk. At nine o'clock I went to the Government Civil Hospital and handed one sample to the Government Analyst, and gave the third one to the Medical Officer of Health. There are seren cow buffaloes in the shed at No. 1, Kennedy Street. About eight o'clock in the morning he came to my house and asked me to change the milk, and said he wanted to change the bottle, as that milk was not good. He asked me not to say he supplied it to Mr. Kennedy at all. He offered to give me a good cumshaw to change the milk. I was in bed at the time. He told ine he was also supplying the same milk to the teashops in the town.
**
Mr. F. W. Browne, Government Analyst, said the milk handed to him by Inspector Cotton contained 39 per cout. of added water. It was a very bad case of adulteration.
Defendnut said he did not know water had been added to the milk. Perhaps a foki com- mitted the offence.
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upon this subject submitted by me to the Gov- vernment last month. I suggested the intro- duction of an Ordinance similar in effect to the Imperial Infectious Diseases Prevention Act of 1890, empowering the Government to prohibit. for a time, the supply of milk from any dairy when such milk is likely to cause or has caused infectious disease in the colony, and I have drafted, for the approval of the Honourable the Attorney-General, a Bill which would furnish these powers.
The most recent cases of enteric fever which
have been reported are six Chinese cases, all from one address, and these are clearly trace- able, in my opinion, to an imported European case, the patient dying, shortly after arrival, in one of the Missionary Homes in the City.I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
FRANCIS W, CLARK, Medical Officer of Health, Honourable J. H. Stewart Lockhart, Colonial
Secretary.
MR. CHAMBERLAIN ON THE COLONIAL TROOPS AT THE JUBILNE CELEBRATION.
The following despatch has been forwarded to us for publication: -
Downing Street,
16th July, 1897. Sir-The time has arrived for the departure from this country of the various component unites of the remarkable military assemblag which has constituted one of the most striking features of the recent Jubilee Celebrations; and I cannot allow the occasion to pass with. out expressing the great satisfaction of Her Majesty's Government that such a unique and characteristic gathering of Her Majesty's Colonial Forces should have been so success- fully brought about.
2.-The Colonial Troops have attracted the marked attention, not only of the British public, but of military experts of all nations; and by their soldier-like bearing and appear- ance, and their discipline and general behar- iour, both on parade and in quarters, they have won the highest opinions on all sides.
3.- Her Majesty's Colonial Forces during their stay in England have been treated in all respects as regular soldiers; they have readily and cheerfully conformed to every requirement of regimental and barrack discipline, and by an intima te association with their comrades of Her Majesty's Regular Foices have become acquainted with every detail of a soldier's life.
His Worship-I consider this is a most dis- graceful base. You are supplying milk to one of the principal milk dealers in the place who is supposed to sell his own milk, and your milk contabr 9 per cent. of added water. This 4. It has been a particular satisfaction to Her milk would probably be supplied to Mr. Ken Majesty's Government that this great occasion nedy's customers and he would not be aware of has been the means of bringing together men the adulteration. You are fined $100 or three of all creeds and o: all races, who although com. months imprisonment. It is a disgracefuling, as many of them have done, from widely
separated portions of the Empire, are all united'
case.
come it will be a source of pride and satisfac- tion to those who are now leaving our shores to think that they have taken part in this great and important national demonstration.
7.-I shall be glad if you will publish this despatch.--I have the honour to be, sir, your
most obedient, humble servant.
J. CHAMBERLAIN. Governor Sir W. Robinson, G.C.M.G., &c., &c.
THE NEW MAGAZINE GAP ROAD.
Works Committee on the new Magazine Gap The following is the report of the Public Road, on account of which a rote was taken at yesterday's meeting of the Legislative Council:-
The Committee considered a plan laid before them by the Acting Director of Public Works for the construction of a road from Plantation Road, Tramway Station, to Magazine Gap. Total estimated cost, including sewer and water main, $38,000,
tion of the Road should be undertaken forth- It was unanimously agreed that the construc-
with at an estimated outlay $20,000; the concreting of the surface of the road and the laying of a sewer and water main being deferred until some of the building sites rendered arailable have been sold. It was further re- commended that the steepest gradients be reduced, if possible, notwithstanding that the cost of the work might be increased by so doing.
THE CLONY'S STERLING PAY- MENTS AND DOLLAR EQUIVALENTS.
In reply to a question by the Hon. T. H. Whitehead a return was laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 23rd Aug, showing the Treasury during the years 1890-1896 and the sterling payments disbursed by the Colonial
items are set ont in detail, the totals being as estimated payments for 1897 and 1898. The follows (fractions omitted):
1890
1891
1892
£40,721-3295,216 56,613 356,388 59,766 422,497
1893
51,458 404,657
1804
56,450 536,492
1895
46,414 434,587
1898
52,110-
482,106
1897 about 1898
52,000 52,000
Says the Singapore Free Press :-When seven or eight years ago we deplored the fact that co- operation amongst the Eastern Crown Colonies on public affairs was then made difficult by the fact that Hongkong was at that time without any political association to take the initiative in such matters, we were not aware that there once had been such an association, but it had disap. peared and had been forgotten. About thirty years ago there was the Hongkong Association in existence in London, though we do not know if it had then any local branch in Hongkong. On the 2nd May, 1868, a deputation from that association waited on the Duke of Buckingham in reference to a petition from Hongkong. Mr. Matheson, Mr. White, and Mr. Sutherland spoke in support of that petition.