September 28, 1901.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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Colony sick, two are said to have succumbed on the mainland gruesome total of 30 per cent.
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BUILDING IN HONGKONG.
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means should be taken to bring the Emperor KWANG HSU back. Until he is once more
(Daily Press, 26th September.) in Peking the restoration of order cannot
The total number of rats paid
To-day at the meeting of the Legislative but seem incomplete in the eyes, of Chinese for this first half-year exceeds that for the
Council the Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD will and foreigners alike. In the occupation by whole of 1900, so that the inroad made on
"Will the the Allies of the Chinese capital the greatest this class of rodent must be extensive. The give notice of the question:-
Honourable the 'Attorney-General lay lesson of the unacknowledged war between charted rise and fall in the Tiurnal number
upon the table a copy of the depositions China and the world has lain. If the fact of bubonic cases closely follows that of rat
taken by the Magistrate at the enquiry, of that occupation is to be taken as unfit-mortality. There can be thus no question
held at the Magistracy on 30th August ting Peking ns the centre of government, as to the intimate relationship existing
last under Ordinauce. No. 7 of 1889, into practically all the falue of the lesson is lost. between the two collated series of facts.
the death of forty-three persons, conse Moreover, at Kaifengfu the Emperor will Appendix B is an account of experiments
quent,upou the collapse or tumbling down still be in the hands of his inptors. Only conducted with the riru: Adagiens of
of houses Nos. 32 and 34, Cochrane Street, in his escape to Peking can any guarantee Professor Daxysz. The result as far as
on the night of 14th idem, together with of good government for China be given.
the feasibility of rat-extermination is con-
"a copy of the Magistrate's decision or cerned, are not satisfactory. After a certain
finding thereon.” In another column will stage has been reached, the rats refuse to eat the dead bodies of their inferted friends, be found the verdict delivered at the Magis- whose corpses would then become a noisome tracy yesterday morning on the Cochrane nuisance, "if not a positive danger, Dr. Street house collapse. With all deference CLARK does not recommend the use of this due to so able a magistrate as Mr. F. A. virus. A similar conclusion has been HAZELAND has proved himself to be again voicing the opinion of the community when reached by an American scientist. It is and again, we cannot but feel that we are We say that the verdict cannot be accepted peculiarly gratifying to learn that a very considerably smaller proportion of dead
as a satisfactory and final summing up on bodies was dumped into the streets and
this terrible calamity. Forty-three deaths were caused, and yet we find no direct word barbour this year than in previous years. On the other hand, more sick adults and children, to all appearances forcibly ejected of blame in the Magistrate's award for any We are told that the build- by their follow lodgers and relatives, have one concernel. been cast adrift on the highways and byings were taxed beyond their strength, that ways, in order to evade disinfection of the they were not properly erected in the first in- accordance with the approved plans, that premises. This heartless practice is point-stance, that the additions were not made edly pressed as a powerful reason for a more vigorous and urgent policy of house- the provisions of the Building Ordinance were not carried into effect, that the cleaning and disinfection during the dormant period. Such increased activity, as Dr. present Public Works Staff is inade additional legal powers by the Sanitary this we knew before. Board. Bye-laws framed in this direction have been drafted and submitted to the proper authorities for the approval of the Legislative Commeil. A rigorous system of house-to-house visitation, in the opinion of Dr. CLARK, and indeed in that of all intelli- gent observers, is of the very utmost value during the sporadic, as opposed to the epidemic, season. This is especially the case when we consider the numberless cunning devices adoptel by the natives to conceal their sick and to get rid of their burden of dead. Children, coolies, domestic servants,
THE 1901 PLAGUE EPIDEMIC.
(Daily Press, 25th September. ) Like all other Reports prepared by our zealous Medical Officer of Health, Dr. FRANCIS CLARK's Report on the Epidemic of Bubonic Fever (Plague), during the half year ended 20th June, 1901, has the hall. mark of thoroughness and arrestness There is, stamped on every paragraph. however, one unsatisfactory feature about it: we refer to the lateness of its issue. The document is dated July 20th; but it was not published by Government till the 21st September, ie., exactly nine weeks after it first saw light. Such intrinsically in portant documents, one would think, might be treated with more reasonable expedition, and sent forth to the world at large with less delay-delay, we hasten to aid, for
which DR. CLARK seems in no way respon | CLARK states, involves the acquirement of quate for the work it has to do. All
sille. This year's epidemic, with its tale of 1,487 reported cases for six months, as shown by analytic reference to Appendix D. is by far the most serious outbreak we have had to contend with since 1894, when the disease first showed itself. The yours 1898 with 1,312, 1896 with 1,116, 1899 with 1,073, and last year with 764 known cases during the same half-yearly period, The come next in order of virulence. figures for this year are not so alarming, as they at first sight appear. There can be no room-for doubt that whereas in the earlier outbreaks, notably in 1894, 1896, and 1898, the native sections daily left us by thousands during the worst stages of the disease, this temporary exodus from our shores has not this year been nearly so marked. Those who were resident here in 1894 will not readily forget the absolutely empty, deserted look of our busiest thorough-
the unemployed, and sewing-women, in the order named, are the classes of the m munity that have furnished most victims this year. Health Districts IV. IX, II and V.,.., the Central, Suiyingpun, East, and West Central sections of the City of Victoria,
What we want to know now is whether any one is to pay the penalty for the dreadful loss of life to no censure to be passed on any one, and is which these circumstances contributed. Is there to be no result from the investigations made We cannot believe this. The Government cannot remain under the inputation of heartlessness and indifference to the loss of human life. The time is
now, if ever, for an unflinching attitude toward the situation which has arisen, and at the same time as they hesitate to perform the authorities cannot preserve their credit their plain duty.
(Daily Press, 27th September.) A paper was laid before the Legislative Council yesterday giving particulars of buildings in the Colony which collapsed between the 30th May, 1895, and the 14th
fare, Queen's Road Central, during the and Health District XI on the,promontory August, 1901. This was done in reply to a
opposite, given in order of intensity, have contributed the biggest number of cases The Report with its four Appendices of carefully tabulated matter, and its two accompanying charts, is one that merits the minute attention of all who profess to community at heart.
request from the Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD for these details. The document is well worth careful attention. Briefly summarised, specified period, involving 101 human the record is of 71 collapses during the deaths; while the injuries actually given
darkest days of the scourge. Grass never sprang up in it, as it did in London in 1665, but its dreariness was oppressive, and its silence appalling. The greater severity of this year's epidemic is more apparent than real; and, could the daily death-rate be worked out in percentages of the actual have the sanitary welfare of our growing are 16, in addition to one entry of "a pum- population resident on our island for each day-such statistics, unhappily for this purpose, are not available-this fact would be demonstrated as conclusively and logically as one of Euclid's propositions. The Sanitary Board's methods of tackling the problem are less crude, more persuasive, and more appreciably effective now than then there is now, also, a certain measur- able amount of understanding between the authorities and the general mass of people, which did not formerly exist. In his terse summary of the history of the twenty-six European cases that occurred in the first six months, DR. CLARK incontestably proves or less direct association of rals and plague. Out of thirty men, too, engaged in collecting rats, seven of them died of plague within the half-year under notice;
and of five others who left the
the more
passed Scutence of imprisonment for life was on Iba Sotaro on the 10th inst. by the Tokyo Chiho Saibansho for the murder of Mr. Hoshi Toru. In the course of a very long judgement the following paragraph conveys the actual sentence: The defendant having murdered Hoshi Torn with premeditation, his action came under Article 292 of the Penal Code; which provides that a person who shall have murdered another with premeditation shall be punished with death. The defendant hastily concluded the state of affairs, and perpetrated the murder. The offence is undoubtedly very grave. But there exist. extenuating cirem- ances which are allowed in his favour according to the provisions of Article 89, of the Penal Code, and his penalty is therefore reduced by one degree from that prescribed for premeditat cd murdor. The defendant is sentenced to penal servitude for life.” .
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ber," and 64 cases where, as in the Cochrane Street Collapse, no remark is made as to injuries. These 71 collapses do not mean that only 71 houses fell down; they vary from a verandah, a back-wall, part of a roof, or a matshed, to a row of fifteen houses. The column headed "Description of Building Collapsed" being incomplete, it is impossible to analyse thoroughly the nature of the collapses: 30 whole houses are definitely specified previous to the recent lisaster. An interesting column is that which gives the names of the owners of the buildings. In 40 out of the 71 cases these are Chinese. In the column giving the attributed cause of the collapse, no records exist in 39 cases; 15 cases are attributed to typhoon (14 of which were in September-November of last year), and 6 to heavy rains, in 4 cases combined with.
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