Most Bulls. Sergeant Smyth. Prize Donors.Ex-Gunner Davies. Consolation.-Gunner P, Q, Smith.
Field Battery Monthly Carbine Competition Gunner Toller.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Toller Cup-Battery Sgt. and Major Dun-j jan.:
་་
"A" Machine Gun Company Monthly Car bide Competition-Aggregate Cup and No. I Monthly Cup, Sergant Skelton; No. 2, Gunner P. G. Smith.
[July 1, 1899.
GENERAL SANITARY CONDITION OF
THE COLONY,
because efficiency came by the goose step and by numbers of cattle. A similiar outbreak of the firing exercise. They must begin with them.rinderpest occurred amongst the cattle at Pok- for they could not expect to be successful except: fulam prior to the 1891 epidemic. they began at the beginning. He congratulated the victors on the beautiful prizes they had won. He hoped that the next time they met they would meet in a much larger room, and that they would have an enthusiastic and thoroughly efficient corps which would serve as a pattern for every corps in the East. (Hear. hear) In conclusion. His Excellency said- Field Battery 7-pounder Competition. Now men of the Hongkong Volunteers, as I said Won by Right Section; Acting Section Combefore unfortunately this is the last occasion mander. Battery Sergeaut-Major Duneau; upon which you will have the pleasure of meet- Captains of detachments, Sergeants G. C. Haying your Commandant of the last two months, ward and W. Armstrong. No, I detachment, who has done so much for the regiment. He Sergeant G. G. Hayward. Corporal Stopani, is leaving us to enjoy that well merited pro- Gunners Higgins, Burgess, Watson. Uphill motion which Her Majesty has seen fit to give Howarth, Spittals. Dean, aud Taylor. No. 2 him, and I ask you for three cheers for the detachment, Sergant Armstrong Corporal Commandant, iu grateful recollection of all Humphreys, Gunner A Humphreys, Bombardier that he has done for the regiment. Nobbs, Gunners Brett. B. seth, Beven. Craig, Wilkinson, and H. Lammert.
Captain Francis's Cup Won by Field Battery
BAW
was
that
His Excellency, who was greeted with ap. plause, then said that the previous time he was present at a distribution of Volunteer prizes was in Nottingham and be deeply impressed with what occasion. The distribution was in connection with the Robin Hood Volunteers, a regiment which numbered a thousand strong. He saw them inspected, and a smarter regiment he never saw on parade, In Nottingham everybody was proud of their Volunteers and everybody gave some sort of a prize. The prizes did not merely consist of silver cups. Silver cups were very useful things and very pretty, but there were many other things which might be given by people who did not want to give a silver cup. Among the prizes in Nottingham were a dozen pair of stockings (laughter.)--and another of the prizes was an easy chair. He hoped that next year they might be able to get up something of the kind in Hongkong and he hoped also that instead of being in that small room at the prize distribution they would have their meeting in the City Hall with all the 350 men belonging to the Volunteers there-(ap: plause) and their wives and sweethearts and families to look on. He thought it would be a vory interesting gathering, and that it would be in the general interest of the Volunteers. The last time he was there and spoke to the Volunteers was after the Corps had done him the honour to ask him to be their honorary colonel. There were 180 men in the Corps then. Now, thanks to the energy of their temporary Coinmandant, Colonel Mainwaring- (Applause)-who he was sorry to say was leasing them and of the officers of the regiment, and obtain to the feeling which began to Among the Europeans in Hongkong that a. Volunteer regiment in Hongkong, was not a mere parade business, but might be a very important facter in the safety and defence. of the colony, the regiment now numbered 302 men; and he had no doubt that before many weeks had elapsed 350 men would be enrolled in the Hongkong Volunteer Force. (applause.) That was not enough, however, for what he wanted, as he had become connected with the corps, was not only to see 350 men but to see 350 efficient men. (Hear, bear.) He wanted every man who joined the corps to remember that there were two things that a soldier must be able to do-be mast be able to march and to shoot. If they could conceire 350TM Sergeant Skeltous quietly sitting on the top of the bill with an enemy at the foot he should be very sorry for the enemy. (Hear, hear.). Now they could not have 350 Sergeant Skeltons, but they might have 350 fair shots of their kind., He wanted to see 350 men that they would be able to swagger abont and who would be superior to any other corps in the East, either at Shanghai or any: where else. (applause.) He hoped that next year when they met they would have a jolly evening and that it would be found that the Was equal if not superior to that of any regi- average shooting of the Hongkong Volunteers ment in the garrison. (applause.) He wanted the young men who came out from the British Isles to show the stuff that was in them-to show that they were prepared to give up time and take the unavoidable trouble to become efficient,
The call was heartily responded to. Colonel MAINWARING, expressed his thanks for the way they had greeted him. He asked them to promise that by the next prize distribu- tion they would every one of them be efficient and do all they could to be gainers of prizes. To show this he asked them to give three cheers for their Colonel, His Excellency the Governor. The three cheers were lustily given and the formal proceedings then terminated.
DK, ATKINSON ON PLAGUE AND SANITATION.
We make the following extracts from the re. port of Dr. J. M. Atkinson, Principal Civil Medical Officer, on "The health and sanitation of the colony of Hongkong for 1898"
PLAGUE.
Though much has been done of late years to improve the sanitary condition of the Colony by us) The removal of illegal cocklofts, mez- zinine floors and backyard obstructions. (b.) the concreting of the Chinese houses not only in Victorien but at Hung Hem, Yaumati, and Taikoktsui in British Kowloon; (c) the steady improvement of defective house-drains; (d.) the closure of polluted wells; no quainted with the elements of sanitation and the conditions of overcowding, filth, and ignorance that exist can fail to see that it will be years before those conditions necessary for the main- tenance of the public health are satisfactorily established in this City.
one.ac.
The Insanitary Properties Commission, who bad been sitting since August, 1896, issued! their report in March of last year, and in it they state :---
That there are many insanitary properties in the Colony, and dwellings which, in their present condition, are unfit for human habita- |tion."
The back portions of a number of houses visited by us are dark, ill-ventilated, ex- tremely dirty and, in some cases, mere dens of filth. The interior of the cubicles or sub. divisions of the living rooms was such that in the great majority of cases their contents could only be seen by the aid of an artificial light."
following table from the Medical Officer of what extent overcrowding exists I append the
Health's report for 1897.-(Here follows the
They call particular attention to the tabulated statement of the Medical Officer of Health, in which he states that in Health Districts V. and VI, out of a total of 3,095 Chinese houses 2,530 are insanitary. In the other Health Districts Unfortunately the Colony was again attacked
it appears from his evidence that a similar un- in an epidemic form by this disea, which pre-satisfactory state of affairs exists. To show to vailed practically until the end of Angust. There were 1,320 cases reported with 1,175 deaths; of these 75 occurred amongst the Nou- Chinese with 49 deaths, a mortality of 65.3 per coat.; whereas the mortality amongst the Chi- nese was 89.6 per cent. The following table gives the number of cases reported in each mouth of the years 1896 and 1898 :—
1896. 18 8.
1896. 1898. 9 July 52 67 Aug.
25 Marchi 168 13. Sept. April 316 468 Oct. Alay
344 534 Nov. 92 Dec.
Jau.
Feb.
Jane
49
125
1,204 1,320
It will be seen that the disease in each year attained its maximum in the month of May. In this Colony in each outbreak the months of maxium mean temperature are followed by aj material reduction in the number of cases.
The city of Victoria is divided in ten Health Districts. On the 24th Marell Districts Nos.:
2, 4, 5, and 6 were declared infected'; in the fol- lowing month the disease spread to British Kowloon, this being declared infected on the 18th April, whilst Aberdeen and Aplichau were not infected until June.
Unfortunately, more Europeans were attacked than was the case in 1896, the numbers being 26 as against 16. I regret to have to report amongst these two of the Nursing Sisters at the Government Civil Hospital, who both succumbed to the puenmonic type of the disease, the first, Sister Frances, undoubtedly having, contracted it from a Chinese patient in the observation at the Goverument Civil Hospital suffering from what proved to be pneumonic variety, and the other, sister Gertrude, contracted the dis- ease whilst nursing Sister Frances.
Each epidemic year has been followed by a year of freedom from the disease, e.g., 1984, 18 6, and 1898 were epidemic years whilst in 1895 and thus far in 1899 the colony has been practically free from the disease. *
It is worthy of note that an outbreak of rin-
derpest (cattle plague) occurred amongst the months of February aud March and that during cattle at the Pokfulam Dairy Farm in the the earlier part of the year the neighbouring provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi were overrun with rinderpest, which killed off large
* The report is dated 7th March, 1899.
table). From this it is seen that in No. V. Health District there are to less than 959 per-
sous to the acre.
A Bill has been framed to make further
provision for the sanitation of the Colony and is now under consideration by the Legislature. It contains regulations as to cubicles, doing away with them entirely in houses fronting streets of a width of 15 feet or less, limiting their height & It makes the erection of mezzanine floors or cocklofts illegal without It the permission of the Sanitary Board. limits the heights of buldings. The most important regulations are those that insist on the provision of an open space in the rear of every domestic building already erected, erected hereafter or now in process of erection; these, if passed, will do away with back to back houses. It also requires that no obstructions shall be in any private streets or lanes upon which domes- tic buildings abut.
To remedy these insanitary defects it is necessary to aim towards the attainment of abundance of pure air and light in houses, shops and streets, to provide un abandant supply of pure wholesome water, to do away with back to back houses, to abolish blind courts and alleys, to prevent overcrowding and to increase as far as practicable open spaces in the crowded part of the city.
METEGROLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF THE SEASONS AND THEIR PROBABLE EFFECT WITH REGARD
TO SICKNESS.
The conclusions to be'drawn from our experi. ence of plague in 1896 and 1898 are that the oconrrence of plague is favoured by (1) Long prevalence of drought or of abnormally low rainfall; (2) atmospheric temperature below
as the months of maximum mean tem- perature were in each year followed by & inaterial reduction in the number of cases;
(3) the absence of sunshine; (4) the dampness
of the atmosphere was high. of the atmosphere; during the months in which there were most cases the mean humidity
The appointment of Mr. R. F. Drury to be Sanitary Surveyor to the Sanitary Board is gazetted.