242
HONGKONG SANITARY BOARD.
On the 27th inst. a meeting of the Hong kong Sanitary Board was held. The President (the Hon. R. D. Ormsby, Director of Public Works) occupied the chair, and there were also present the Vice-president (Dr. Bell, Acting Principal Civil Medical Officer), Major Brown, Dr. Hartigan, Mr. E. Osborne, Dr. F. Clark (Medical Officer of Health), Mr. Fung Wa Chuen, Mr. Chan A Fook, and Mr. G. A. Woodcock (Secretary).
THE RECENT COLLAPSE IN HOLLYWOOD ROAD. The minutes of the previous meeting having been confirmed,
Dr. HARTIGAN moved the suspension of the -Standing Orders for the day.
Mr. OSBORNE seconded, and the motion was carried.
Dr. HARTIGAN-My object in asking for tho suspension of the Standing Orders is to bring forward a question of which I gave notice yesterday. I have been on the Board many years now, and certainly 24 hours' notice of a question has been deemed sufficient before. I received a letter at 12 o'clock to-day saying that the President refused to receive my question. and I wish now to bring my question forward. Dr. CLARK-He is entitled to bring it for ward now as the Standing Orders have been suspended.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
portions of Crown Land and recommend that a two-storied dwelling should be erected to the North or North-West of Inland Lot 1082 and fronting the sea. In order to do this it may be necessary to reclaim a small area of the foreshore which is here sandy and shelving, so as to avoid too great proximity of the house to the pathway leading to Kennedytown Hos- pital, but we understand that this will not involve any great expenso. We also recom- mend that, pending the completion of these new quarters, the Inspector shall not be re- quired to reside in the present building, but shall be granted the usual house allowance in licu thereof."
|
Dr. Bell minuted:-"I presume this will come up for discussion later on."
On the motion of Dr. CLARK, seconded by Dr. BELL, the report was adopted and the Secretary was instructed to forward it to the Govern- ment for consideration.
RINDERPEST AT THE OLD TUNG WAH
HOSPITAL.
The following letter, dated September 17th, from the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon (Mr. Ladds) was read :-
---
"I have the honour to report for the in-
formation of the Board that rinderpest has broken out amongst 22 rejected cattle which were housed in the depots when the disease broke out amongst the military cattle. At the time when the military cattle were attacked Rule No. 11 two clear days' notice, or 48 hours, these animals showed no signs of the disease, was required.
The PRESIDENT observed that according to
Dr. HARTIGAN said that this referred to a motion. He took it that a question only re- quired 24 hours' notice.
The PRESIDENT said it was open for the question to be put if the members wished it, as he found no rule against it.
Dr. HARTIGAN-I take it as a right and not as anything else. The Standing Orders have been suspended and I have a right to put any question I like. The Secretary has got my question, and I would ask him to read it.
The Secretary read the question as follows:- Has any communication or report been made by the Sanitary Department to the Govern ment, or to any Government Department on the condition of any of the houses which have lately collapsed in the Central District?
If so what reply has been received, or what action has been taken in the matter?
The PRESIDENT said that with rogard to the first part of the question no communication or report had been made by the Sanitary Board to the Governinent or to any Government Depart- ment, and the answer to the second part was
No."
Dr. HARTIGAN said his reason for bring ing the matter forward was that people who spoke about the collapse had made the remark that reports had been made by the Board's offi- cers that such and such buildings were in a dangerous state and that no notice had been taken of the reports.
but as a precautionary measure, having been in contact with diseased animals, they were at once isolated and placed in the old Tung Wah Mortuary buildings. As none of these animals are fit to be slaughtered for food, and as it would be unwise to allow them to be moved elsewhere, I suggest that they be allowed to remain where they are until such time as the disease may have run its course. die will be buried, and those which recover can then be taken out of the colony. I am pleased to be able to state that the Government depots are now free from the disease. 98 of the military cattle which showed no signs of disease have been slaughtered for food, 23 died, and four are recovering."
Those which
Dr. Bell minuted :-Agree with Colonial Veterinary Surgeon."
The PRESIDENT observed that a report had come in that day from the Veterinary Surgeon stating that the outbreak had been suppressed
after a loss of 12 of the animals mentioned.
THE MARKET ACCOMMODATION AT KOWLOON. Mr. OSBORNE proposed the following motion, of which he had given notice-That in the Government be asked to provide a market view of the increasing population of Kowloon
on a convenient site for residents of that focaly. He said-In a community such as ours, when it is decreed by Government that fresh provisions may be sold nowhere but in markets, the people have a right to expect that sufficient market accommodation should be provided for the purpose, and considering that the markets of this Colony are a handsome invest- ment, one marvels why it is they are not supplied wherever they will pay. They are, however, in sufficent in number and with the exception of modern requirements. Ill-adapted, ill-ventilated the Central are poor in quality and two small for and dark they stand as a monument of stagna- tion and decay-an open sore upon the otherwise healthy constitution of this progressive Colony. In Kowloon, or rather I should say Tsimsatsui, for Hung Hom and Yaumati have three markets, there is a rapidly increasing population and a healthy expansion which threatens to rival this side of the Harbour, and if we would learn a lesson from the past we should, before every The Dairy Bye-laws as amended were sub-available mile of ground is absorbed by the mitted and approved.
Dr. CLARK explained that when the In- spectors discovered any walls in a dangerous gondition they reported the matter and that re- port was forwarded to the Public Works De- partment. Dr. Hartigan's question related to certain houses which had fallen, but he was not in a position to state whether these par- ticular houses had been reported upon. In some cases the P. W. D. had no power of action, but in other cases the Secretary had called the attention of the owners to the dangerous wall and it had been reconstructed.
The PRESIDENT-Is that all, Dr. Hartigan Dr. HARTIGAN That is all. I have got the information I require.
THE DAIRY BYE-LAWS.
THE INSPECTOR'S QUARTERS AT THE CATTLE DEPOTS.
The sub-committee (Dr. Clark, Dr. Hartigan. and Mr. McKie) on the Inspector's quarters at the Cattle Depots, submitted the following:
16
builder, provide a market there sufficient for present needs and capable of extension in the future. Every ounce of fish and every pound of meet consumed by Europeans at Kowloon is brought there from Hongkong, and seeing that this population is large enough to sup- port a market of its own, the waste of time, labour and money involved in cross-
We have the honour to report that we have inspected the present quarters of the Inspector in charge of the Animal Depots at Kennedying the Harbour should cease. From a Sani- town, and are of the opinion that they are at present quite unfit for human habitation, and will continue to be so until the adjacent nullahs have been trained, and the swamps properly drained. We have inspected the neighbouring,
tary point of view, market accommodation should be of the best type and in excess rather than behind the requirements and it is
fore to be hoped that Government will way to provide a market for Kowloon
[September 29, 1900.
worthy in every respect of the growing impor. tance of that locality.
Mr. Osborne's reasons sufficiently pungent to Dr. CLARK, in seconding, said he thought warrant the Board in making such a recommen- dation to the Government. Unless the Govern- ment took action at an early date the probability. that they had been in on many previous was that they would be in the same position
could not get what they wanted because the occasions they would be informed that they
Government had no longer got the land in its hands.
The PRESIDENT, in supporting, referred to the splendid return obtained by the Government from the markets, the market recently put up at Tai Kok Tsui bringing in a return of 30 per cent., which even in Hongkong would be con sidered a handsome return for the money spent.
The motion was carried.
THE KOWLOON WATER SUPPLYSSE Mr. OSBORNE proposed the following motion, of which he had given notice:➡"(2.) That the Go vornment be asked to state what steps are being taken to provide water for Kowloon during the approaching dry season.". He said→To provide a plentiful and continuous service of pure fresh
water is a paramount duty of every Municipal Authority. To fail in such a duty is to fail in the rudiments of Municipal government and to risk being charged with incapacity or neglect. The Hongkong Government in the failure of viction on one or other of these counts, because the Kowloon Water service cannot escape con. whatever may be the reasons, whatever excuses may be put forward, the discreditable fact ́ rei mains that from the day of inauguration it has gone from bad to worse, until at the moment, for all practice purposes, it has peased to exist when there should be plenty there is faming
when there should be contentment there is dissatisfaction and disgust. This statd of affairs cannot be attributed to failure in
the supply, because not only are the existing
sources sufficient, but there is water in abund- behind the Kowloon hills, and it needs only ance running to waste throughout the year
emergy and moderate engineering skill to tấp those bountiful supplies. The cause must there! fore, be sought elsewhere, and it lies, I under- stand, in some mechanical difficulty connected with the pumping machinery, and in the par- simony of not paying for a qualified engineer to attend to it. If this be so, the Government may claim the destruction of having inconvenienced a community for nearly three years by its in- ability to cope with a difficulty which the smallest municipality at home would overcome in a few months, and I do not hesitate
would, under similar circumstances, have to say that no Water Company at home
dared to treat its customers in the manner the Government have treated the Kowloon #ate- payers. The inconvenience which Kowloon re- sidents have for so long suffered is, we may be told, no concern of the Sanitary Board, but there is another aspect of the question, viz. its bearing upon the Public Health, which very much concerns us, and it is upon these grounds that I ask the Board to urge upon Government the necessity for energetic action and the im portance of making arrangements, even though ing the service as quickly as possible. The they be temporary, for improving and increas plague this summer at Hunghom, Yaumati and Tsimtsatsui was, I believe, the worst we have known and it seems to me not illogical to suppose that the severity of the outbreak was accentuated by scarcity of water for cleansing and flushing purposes. At the present moment a large force of troops is stationed at Kowloon for whom water is brought in native boats, a method of conveyance which must of necessity constitute a danger from a sanitary point of view, even though the water be collected from uncontaminated areas, and if, as seems probable, the military forces at Kowloon are to remain permanently augmented it is imperative upon the Government to attend quickly to the water supply, and it will be the duty of the Sanitary Board to agitate until they do so.
Dr. HARTIGAN, in seconding, said they all knew the absolute necessity of water for the public health, and they all know that in Hong- kong in times past they had suffered severely through want of water. He remembered that when Pokfulam was made some people laughed at it, saying that the reservoirs were infinitely