ད་ ་ ་དག་གག་ ཞང་ག་ ང་ ༢་༧ཤད་ དབྱ་རྐན་
March 3,
1900 ¦
machinery of three bodies at work, and he must say that that did not seem to him to be either desirable or that it would be to the advantage of the colony. It would be a round about way of doing business Take his case as director of Public Works. He had the supervision and charge of all the public works carried out in the colony. He also sat on the Sanitary Board, where works were suggested, and it was pro- posed that be should occupy a seat on the Trust in which great works would be suggested. It seemed to him that it would be a much simpler way for the Government, as long as they continued to hold the working of the city in their own hands without a Municipal Council, to strengthen the Public Works Department and hare a special staff of engineers whose sole duty it would be to carry out such works as this committee had suggested. He entirely agreed that proportion of the revenue from land sales should be capita lised and set aside for improvements. Every body must agree that to expend their land revenue as it came in on the ordinary expenditure at the colony was a mistake. It could not go on for erer. They had a success- ful year last year in selling land, and this year promised to equal it or surpass it, but they could not go on for over. He moved as an amendment that the schema be referred back to the committee for further elaboration before being forwarded to the Governor.
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The PRE IDENT seconded.
Dr. CLARK said Bombay had a Municipal Council but the Trast was independent of it. It was quite as possible for them to have a Trust without a Municipal Council as it was Bombay to have a Trust with a Municipal Council.
On the amendment being put it was lost, and the motion was carried.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
the period prescribed by the law. The obser- vance of this bye-law was being wilfully disre- garded on all sides, and until the Sanitary Board had their hands strengthened they would never be able to get the place into a cleauly condition."
It was subsequently decided, on the motion of Mr OSBORNE, to prosecute the offenders.
BATS AND THE PLAGUE,
The Acting Colonial Secretary forwarded to! the Board a copy of a despatch from the Secre- of bubonic plague, and adding that His Ex- tary of Stato for the Colonies on the subject
cellency would be glad to receive any advice or suggestions from the Sanitary Board ou the points dealt with iu the despatch. The des patch, which is dated December 30th, is as follows:-
"I have the honour to inform you that the bubonic plague in Mauritins and the great recent occurrence of a severe outbreak of mortality attendant thereon have caused me to of the best measures for preventing the con- give most careful consideration to the question
tinned spread of this dangerous disease,
-I am advised that the chief agent in
spreading the plague is the rat, and this advise is strongly confirmed by the experience of the authorities engaged in stamping out the epidemic | in Mauritius. I would specially invite your attention to the remarks by Dr. Manson in the pamphlet issued by the London School of Tropical Medicine. a copy of which is enclosed
for your informatiou.
3-Althongh measures for the destruction of rats in sea ports or other places likely to be'in- has been established. I wish specially to urge upoa fected are of great utility eren after a plague focus you the desirability of taking such measures as soon as possible in auticipation of the occurrence of any cases of babonic plague. I am advised that the practical extermination of the rats in A letter dated Feb. 27th, was submitted from auy town would probably make it quite impos. Mr. A. Shelton Hooper, secretary of the Hong-sible for the disease to establish itself these. kong Laud Investment and Ag-ney Company, Limited, which said:-
THE LIME-WASHING PROSECUTIONS.
“I beg to forward for the information of the Board a list of properties owned by this com. pany which are leased to the persons set on in the schedule. The lessees are the persons re ceiving the rents from the sub-tenants and have corenanted to whitewash the houses to the sat- isfaction of the Sauitary Board. I am re- quested to ask, therefore, that in case any de- fault is made by the premises not being white. washed, the Board may deal with the said lessees, and I may add we will give the Board erery assistance in our power to compel the lessees to comply with the law."
The Hon. W. Meigh Goodman asked, when Acting Chief Justice, for a definition of owner under Ordinance 24 of 18%, wrote:-
"Owner' is defined by sub-section 13 of Section 3 of Ordinaues 24 of 1887 to mean- auy house-owner, or the person for the time being receiving the rent. &c. In my opinion the word house owner means the Crown lessee or the assignee (as distinguished from the sub. lessee) of the Crown leases, and in my opinion the words 'person for the time-being receiving the rent, etc, receiving rent direct from the actual occupier of the premises. It follows, therefore, if my abore interpretation of the Ordinance is correct, that a prosecution could be instituted under the bye-law in question against either the Crown lessee (or, if he has assigned his interest over against his assignee) or against any person receiving rent direct from the actual occupier of the premises."
THE LAW AS TO PROSECUTIONS FOR BREACHES OF BYE-LAWS.
A letter was submitted by the Acting Co. lonial Secretary (the Hon. F. H. May) acknow. ledging the receipt of a copy of the report of a visit of inspection paid to No. 2 Health District and the letter accompanying the same. The letter recommended an alteration in the law governing prosecutions for breach of Bye-laws made under section 13 of Ordinance 24 of 1887, and the Acting Colonial Secretary wrote :— "The Bill in question has already been intro. duced into Legislative Council and will be read a second time at the next meeting."
4-No doubt many methods of eft. ployment of rat-calibers paid partly by a cabs, this object will occur to you, such as the out the distribution of rat poison, the impetatiou of the mongoose or other rat-killing wimals
etc.
A novel and very importa t method has, however, been suggested by Dr. Mansuti ya Fed adviser to this office, and I would sugge* early trial where practicable. This method is to close all outlets from the sewers and to fill them with poisonous gas, afterwards fl in ing them thoroughly to remove the deal rats
"I shall be glad to learu what action you may be disposed to take in consequence of this despatch and to rece ve any suggestions which you may think useful.”
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The PRESIDENT said that roughly speaking they were destroying 500 a week.
Mr. OSBORNE thought steps should be taken to allow of the purchasing of rats to be con- tinned. The time given by the Government was almost ap. He begged to more that the Government he asked to extend the time indefinitely.
This was seconded by Mr. McKIE and carried, ‹
THE PLAGUE AT 1000.
A report from the British Consul at Hiozo. dated February 5th, said the total number of cases of plague at that port from the commence. ment was given as 23, of which 19 proved fatal. In Osaka the total number of cases reached 42,
· of which all but two were fatal. The last case occurred there on January 12th."
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THE HEALTH OF THE COLONY. The death rate for the colony for the week previous week and 166 for the corresponding ended Feb. 10th was 281, against 198 for the
week last year. The rate for the week ended Feb. 17th was 244, against 212 for the cor. responding week last year.
This was all the business.
THE SITUATION IN THE FAR EAST
ADDRESS BY CAPTAIN 0, C. ANDERSON,
On the 27th ult. Captain G. C. Ander- under the auspices of the Hongkong Odd son delivered an address in the City Hall,
Volumes Society, on " The Situation in the Far East." The Hon, T. H. Whitehend presided,
The CHAIRMAN, in calling upon the lec- turer said that during the course of last Mr. Anderson delivered two lectures before the year "society, and they were exceedingly interesting and most instructive--one on “The Manaing of the Mercantile Marin- the other on
Tho Reasons for Joining the Navy League." If he gure them half as good a lectura that day as be lid on those creasions they would be very mach indebted to him. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. R. F. DRURY wrote-An: ruts xi-t would be found in the storm drains (which still ing in drains in this colony I should say couver 1 to 3 of the city sewage) for the reason that they can find exits and entrances through the gullies. The drains are of large area and the rats can run along the rough flat inverts and out of the very many untrapped storm drain without having to swim; they also ein get in
tributaries, In these larger storm drains and larger, it would be exceedingly di fieult, if varying from 2 feet square to 8 fee by 4 feet not impracticable, to generate and confine a suf. the rats and gas would be liable to escape from ficiency of poisonous gas-more particularly as the hundred and one aukuown entru ex and rat-holes. the gullies could of course be blocked. With regard to the swers (all of glazed pipes), all the tributaries and entrances being trapped, I do not see where the rats get their entrances Owing to the average grada of the sewers being very steep and the flow of god velocity. I think it unlikely that rats will be generally found in them-but very probably in the storm drains. However, before stating the use of gas in the drains to be impracticable, I think it should be proved 'one way or an. other, although I personally consider it im practicable! The habitation of rats in the storm drain is another very important reason why'all that can be done should be done' to entirely divert sewage from storm drains.
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The PRESIDENT said he had referred this to the Medical Officer of Health and the Surveyor to report.
Mr. OSBORNE said that as showing how ne- cessary this alteration was he might state that out of 1,500 tenements in the Eastern Divisiou Mr. McKIE-Hare we any information as of the city only 193 had been cleansed within 'to how we are getting on in the catching of rats?
:
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appropriate reference to affairs in South Africa, Captain ANDERSON, at the outset, made an and from bis succeeding observations we make the following -xtracts :-
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THE EXTENSION OF THE COLONY, "The long looked for extension of this colony has at last been obtained, and to quote the Report of the China Association—”under circumstances that render it very doubtful whether the aquisition will be of any great or immediate benefit to the colony."
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That may be said to be das to the views tak- en by the permanaut officials of the Colonial Office. Unfortunately we do not possess suffici- ent information to get at the real motive power of their action, but we do know that the results of government, more especially the result of the have reflected no great credit on our system Sam-chuen affair, the effect of which will be felt for many a year in dealing with the Chinese and that to the detriment of local interests.
those who kuow the Chinese Mandarins are well It has very frequently been remarked that
aware that they will never attribute forbearance to any other cause than fear. Take our recent experience here as an example. So long as we were content to bandy words with the Viceroy of Kwangtung there opposition but something very much worse; position to all our proposals, and not only paper was nothing but op-
but the moment that matters were placed in the hands of General Gascoigne, and the Leo Metford became a factor to reckon with, all opposition faded away, and we made our own arrangements.
extension of the colouy, we were after gold Now nobody can say that in desiring the fields, or territory, or any of the etceteras which Lord Salisbury is accused of having in his mind with regard to the Transvaal. The extension was forced on us in self defence, the first Law of Nature, and by the look of things at present, it will probably be some time before we get any return for the trouble. anxiety, and expense, we have been put to in the matter. So long as China was believed to be able to look after her own affairs we said nothing, but when, after the war with Japan, we saw the central power weaken- ing day by day, rebellion ramp nt on every side, loose, Russia helping, herself in the North and all the elements of narest and disorder let