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November 4, 1899.1
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there was something in what the Hon. Dr. Ho The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS thought Kai had advanced. Eight feet by eight feet was a very rigid measurement to lay down and
the sub-section should read as follows" No might not suit all houses. He proposed that cubicle used for sleeping purposes shall have less flour area than 64 square feet or a less length or width than seven feet."
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. plague than the men, and this was sometimes Council to let this matter stand over at the put down to the fact that the men went out previous Council meeting so that honourable into the open air more often than the women. members might have an opportunity of con- That might have something to do with it, but sidering it. It was for the Council to say his firm opinion was that it was because the whether they thought the size of the cubicles women had less to eat than the men. It was should be increased or not. He had a strong the custom for them to reserve the best for opinion upon the matter himself. The amend the men and be content with very little them.ment of the Hon. Captain Superintendent of selves. A working man might have fresh meat Police was that" eight feet by eight feet" be once or twice or three times a week, whereas substituted for " 64 feet square." the woman in the house would have to be content with meat once a week or none at all, and have to exist on vegetables or salt fish. That was, to his mind, the reason why more women eaught the plague than men. fully convinced that if they were ever to send He was plagae from their midst it would not be by ventilation only, but chiefly by enabling the Chinese to get cheap lodgings. As long as they had such a large population living in the sity of Victoria it was impossible for them by any single measure they might pass to rid the colony of plague. Instead of passing any drastic measure like the one proposed and spending money every year in combat- ting the plague they might spend publio money in opening out new sites and providing cheap and easy means of access to them, and then if they spread the population throughout the colony they would find that! plague would finally leave them.
The Hon. WEI A YUK said he endorsed all that the Hon. Dr. Ho Kai had said,
His EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR said he had very great difficulty himself on this question of overcrowding. He knew that the popular opinion was that overcrowding and the height of houses were at the bottom of this visitation of plague, and it had frequently appeared to his mind that if it was satisfactorily proved to that Council that the cause of the epidemics of plague was overcrowding the simplest way of making a beginuing to remedy the evil would be to enlarge the cubicles: But in saying that he was by no means certain that the evil could be remedied in this way. Statistics did not bear out the general assumption that the sanitary state of the town was due to surface overcrowd-
The Hon Dr. Ho KAI said the Bill before them did not povide any remedy, or effective remedy, for overorowding. It only made more space for ventilation and saw that every house had a back yard or passage so that the people could get the air in from the back and have a through ventilation. At the present time some houses had not got a backyard; therefore pro- per ventilation was impossible. They might have an open front, and yet the air did not oirculate through unless they had an outlet at the back. Therefore, so far as he could see, the present Bill dealt with the ventilation of houses and the Bill bad his support, and he believed had the support of other members of the Council; but as a measure to diminish over- orowding, the Bill would scarcely touch it at all. The surface overcrowding was not pro- vided for in the Bill except by olause 6. The height of buildings was allowed to re- main as now, and only on land which was ac- quired from the Crown after the passing of this Bill could they prevent surface overcrowd- ing. Surface orowding they, would have to a great extent in a few years time. Instead of 72,000 per square mile they would have 100,000 or more per square mile. A workman would have to live somewhere near his work. If he walked a long distance he was tired when he got to his work, and he did not like to make a long tramp home after his day's work was over. This had the effect of overcrowding some districts in the colony. In order to pre- vent that sort of thing the real remedy lay in opening out the east and west ends of the town at present unoccupied and connecting them by means of a tramway to be subsidised by Government, the charge only to be nominal to enable the labouring population to make use of the tramways. Then again, opposite Hongkong, along the SOA shore. there were an enormous number of building plots which could be made use of if there was a decent service of ferry boats. Sometimes they had to wait half an hour or an hour for the Chinese ferry boat before they could cross, and as re- garded the English Company their charge was too excessive for the labouring Chinese to make use of their ferry. If they had lines of ferrying, or that the mortality from plagas followed boats subsidised by Government, a nominal the rate of overcrowding in the town. He had charge being made, it seemed to him that the been looking very carefully over all those things, Chiueso labouring classes would be able to and he might say that a short time after he occupy the cheap land on the other side, cane bere he visited about 30 of the worst So far as the subsidy was concerned, he houses which could be shown to him by the thought the Government would easily recover Medical Officer of Health. It was perfectly all they spent in increased land sales and in-
clear to his mind that the ground floors of some oreased taxes. He thought if the Government's of these houses were utterly unfit for human attention was drawn. to this matter and im- habitation, because they could not see at all mediate action taken, in a very few years the without a lamp. The cubicles in them were Chinese would be spread out either to the east absolutely dark, and it was quite clear to him end or to the west end or on to the opposite shore, that people should not be allowed to live in such and overcrowding would be materially diminished. places. On going through the houses, which With regard to oubicles, a man earning $6 or he did from roof to cellar, he confessed he was 88 a month had to pay about $2 or more a struck by their cleanliness. He did not find month as rent for his cabiole for himself and
the state of filth which he was led to family. That was one-third of his wages, and expect to find. On the contrary, he found the left him so much less for food and clothing. houses quite as clean as the same class of houses He could either pay for a good room to live in London. The cubicles were very small, in and stint himself and family as regarded food and there were a large number of people living and clothing, or he could have better food and in them, but when one came to look into the clothing and live in a small space. As to question he found that the instances of plague the plague returns referred to by His Ex- did not follow the rate of population at all. He cellency the Governor at the previous Council would have expected to find, if overcrowding meeting, he could see that it was not only had been the cause of the insanitary state of the insanitary dwellings which caused the plague. town, that the death rate would have gradually It was his firm opinion that insufficiency of increased as the population of the town in food and clothing reduced a man's constitution oreased. They knew that the population of to such a state that he was unable to withstand Hongkong was very much greater than it was the attacks of disease. They might place B in 1878, but he found that the death rate in Chinese anywhere and give him a big hong to that year was 30-35 whilst it was but 22:50 last live in a palace at the Peak if they liked year. Of course there had been sanitary im but if he had insufficient food and clothing he provements since 1878, but still the fact re- would take the plague just the same as a China-mained that before these improvements were man much worse housed, and this had been amply proved by cases of plague which had occurred at the Peak. A man's constitution was weakened by bad and insufficient food and olothing. When they saw during the summer months and during the autumn a large number of coolies lying out in the street at night they could not wonder at their being afflicted with dysentery, cholera, or anything else. They lay on the ground exposed to the night air and dew, and it was enough to give anyone rheuma- tism and other ailments. It plagne or anything else was going about at the time they were sure to catch it. It had been stated that the women ani children were more often aff ested by the
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made or taken in hand the death rate had not increased at all but had decreased though the population was increasing. As to surfaos overcrowding, they would find if they took the population in the different districts that the cases of plague were not in proportion to the population. This fast shook
one's faith in the statement that it was over-
crowding which had brought about the present state of affairs. Touching on the question of increasing the size of the cubicles, His Excel- leney said that, as the Hon. Dr. Ho Kai had said, increasing the size of cubicles must in evitably mean an increase in the rent and natur- "ally an increase in wages. He requested the
ried, the Hon. Dr. Ho Kai being the only dis On this being put to the Council, it was car sentient.
Clause 5, which deals with mezzanine floors or cocklofts, was next considered, and was passed with only a small alteration.
buildings, being reached,
On clause 6, which deals with the height of
The Hon T. H. WHITEHEAD suggested. that in the line "No building erected on land acquired from the Crown" the word "domestic” should be inserted before building, on the ground that it might be unfair to apply this provision to a godown.
His EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR said he took it that the object of this clause was to se cure from interference the light of the buildings on the opposite side of the plot on which the high building was to be erected. Therefore it did not matter whether that building was a go. down or a domestic house, because it would keep out the light from the building opposite just the same. the plague infected houses during the last He found from the report that of epidemic 9.45 per cout. were two-storey houses, 9.80 three storey houses, and 8.6 four-storey houses. He found that the cases per 100 houses in the different districts were 102.6 storey houses, and 107.7/10 in four-storey per cent, in two-storey housos, 103.4 in throe houses, so that they saw when they came to look into it that there was not that tremen- dous preponderance of plague cases in high house which they had been led to expect.
The CAPTAIN SUPERINTENDENT of POLICE -How many four-storey houses were there?
His EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR-ouly 78. that there were many cubicles on the first floor. The ACTING ATTORNEY-GENERAL observed
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proportion of cubicles on the first floor is some- HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR-The
what great, but we have settled the cubicle question.
The ACTING ATTORNEY-GENERAL-I find that in districts Nos. 1 to 19 there were 1,087 cubicles on the first floor.
houses infected there were 378 cases
His EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR-In all the on the ground floor, 940 on the first floor, 359 on the second, and 28 on the third. As far as one can and ground floors, taking into consideration the see, the majority of cases took place on the first customs of the Chinese I should think it pro- bable the cases found in the streets would be cases from the ground floor and not from thờ top floor.
propose with regard to the first paragraph of The Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD-I would clause 6-which reads, "No building erected on land acquired from the Crown after the passing of this Ordinance shall exceed height one and half times the width of the words "on land acquired from the Crown" street upon which such building fronts"—the be deleted, and the following words added after throughout its entire depth, with a lane along "fronts " :-" Unless such building is provided,
one of its lateral sides, of a width of at least one fourth of the height of such building; a window or windows having a total clear of the window frames of at least
one tenth of the floor
area
area of each room
shall be provided opening into such lane in addition to the window area required by section 8 (a) of Ordinance No. 15 of 1894.” In connection with this suggestion I wrote to be honourable the Attorney-General on the subject some days ago giving my reasons in support. I should like my letter to bo read.