?
THE PRESIDENT-Very good. Resolution carried.
THE SUSPENDED INSPECTORS.
An important letter was read from the Colonial Secretary, as follows:-
The PRESIDENT proposed that the letter should be laid on the table.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Legislative Council, and as the orders are out fixing the meeting for Thursday, I beg to move that the matter stand over until that meeting is held.
The P&RSIDENT-The matter is practically settled. We have received a letter stating that the application was not granted.
Mr. SHELTON HOOPEE-Quite so. Mr. LAU CHU PAK seconded. The motion was carried.
THE OBNOXIOUS SECTION,
May 18, 1907, 1
open to any ratepayer to apply to the Supreme Curt for a mandamus compelling us to do so. Under the circumstances. I think no further discussion should take place until the report is out, and it has to be ont by Thursday.
Mr. HUMPHREYS-I would like to add, thất under existing conditions when the Board refers a recommendation to the Council, and that recommendation is ignored by the Governor-in Coanojl, a majority of the Board have a great deal of influence with the Governor-in-Council, but it so happens that a minority of the Board is capable of getting aside anything a majority has decided. This is a position I don't care to take (laughter). I agree with Mr. Hooper that the Board is not compelled to refer the matter to the Governor- in-Council..
Consideration of th· question was deferred. MORTALITY STATISTICS.
The returns for the week ending April 2`th, 1907, showed that in the British and Foreign community the death rate was 16.1 compared with 29.9 in the corresponding week of last
year, and that for the whole Colony the death rate was 21.0 as compared with 24.9 in the corresponding week of last year.
DU "PING THE DEAD.
I am directed by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government to state for the information of the Sanitary Board, that as a result of investigations initiated by the Public Health and Iuilding Ordinance Commis- sión, charges of bribery were preferred on various ooo sions against Messrs. F. Ward, S. A minute was subraitted by the SECRETARY Kelly, J. R. Lee, T. P. Conolly, P. T. Lamble relative to section 175 of the Public Health and F. O. Amy, Inspectors in the Sanitary and Buildings Ordinance, 1903, in which he Department; and these cfficers with the excep-stated: I do not understand clearly what the tion of Mr. Lamble-the charge against whom Beard desires by the condition in connection was held to be not proved-were after due with the arrange nent of half kitchen and half inquiry suspended by the Governor-in-Council | verandah in lieu of half kitchen and half yard. from the exercise of the functions of their office, After pointing out that the arrangement of and their cases reported to the Secretary half kitchen and half verandah must be treated of State for the Colonies, with a view to dis- as a special case, he proceeded: What I desire to missal from the Public Service. Lord Elgin know is whether the Board, in treating the concurred in the suspension and dismissal of arrangement of half kitchen and half verandab Messrs. Ward, Lee, Couolly and Amy, but not as a special case, makes the recommendation sub- Kelly, who, however, will not be again employed ject to the condition that the work of opening. in the Sanitary Board.".
up half verandah is put in hand at once, or whether this work is to stand over pending the consideration of the report of the Commis. sion. If the Board insist on the work being A farther letter from the Government, dated done at once, and the Government after con3rd May, relative to dead bodies found cast sidering the report of the Commission does not amend section 175, the applicant can legally be compelled to open up that half of kitchen which he had converted into a verandah. In any case, if the procedure is followed, all those special cases, no matter whether the Board recommend exemption or an arrangement of half kitchen and half verandah, will have to be re-considered after the report of the Com mission has been considered by the Gov. ernment. I beg to suggest that the present procedure be altered, and that the Board in those cases where it is of opinion that exemption might be granted, apply to the Governor-in-Council for authority not to enforce section 175, and in those cases where an arrangement of half kitchen and half verandah would be satisfactory, apply for authority not to enforce seotion 175 on condition that this work is carried out. In both cases the decision should be final, and no time limit fixed. I
Mr. HOOPER- Have the Press got it? The PRESIDENT They have seen it. Mr. HOOPER-The reason why I asked was because the Press cannot always get papers. At times when they ask for them they are informed that they are out.
The letter was laid on the table.
The
as
TREATING PLAGUE CABES, REGISTRAR-GENERAL reported follows:-The Chinese Public Dispensary Committee wish to make use of a detached building on M.I.L. 198, Huoghom, numbered 86A, Hunghom West, as a District Plague Hospital. Certain repairs and alterations will have to be effected and I recommend that the building be approved (subject to these being made) as a place in which plague may be
treated.
J
In another letter Mr. BREWIN made a similar recommendation, subject to such alterations as the Assistant Medical Officer of Health might suggest.
B CK YARD REQUIREMENTS.
Eight applications for exemptions from the requirements of section 175 of the Public Health and Building Ordinance were before the Board. The most important was one in which Messrs. Palmer and Turner, on behalf of Messrs. Siems sen and Company, asked for a modification with regard to No. 11 Wing Lok Street and 320 Des Vosur Road. Notice had been served on the arobilect requiring that back yards 'should be required, though this would mean the removal of half the kitchen floors and roofs. The houses. submitted Messrs. Palmer and Turner, were corner houses, well lighted and ventilated for the whole depth by windows opening into Morrison Street, The enforcement of the section would ruin the houses for the purposes for which they were built tea houses. Come few months prior to the application for a modi fication (November, 1906) plans were submitted to the Sanitary Board for the enlarging of the side windows, etc., and then no question was raised as to back yards.
After consideration, at a previous meeting, the Board recommended that the houses be treated as special cases and that no proceedings be taken to enforce the provisions of section 175. In a letter, dated April 23rd 1907, the Colonial Secretary informed the Board that the recommendation had not been approved of,
This was communicated to Messrs Palmer and Turner, who again wrote asking that the Medical Officer of Health should inspect the premises.
**Mr. SHELTON HOOPER minuted that as the ́Governor-in-Council was unwilling that the matter should stand over pending the publica- tion of the report of the Commission, be con- sidered that the modification originally asked for should be granted.
Mr. LAU CHU-PAK-I agree with Mr. Hooper.
The PRESIDENT explained that this was application for exemption and not modi- fication.
Mr BHELTER HOOPER-The late Governor isted that the report of the Commission would be laid on the table at the next meeting of the
further suggest that the Board recommend that sub-section 175 (4) be deleted, and that the proviso of sub-section 154 (9) be substituted therefor. If this were done sub-section 175 (4) would read as follows, and the Board would, with the consent of the Governor-in-Council, be able to exempt special cases from the requirement of section 175. At present neither
the Governor-in-Council nor the Board has the
consent of the
power to exempt, even in these cases where no useful purpose would be served by enforcing the requirements of section 175. "Provided that the Board, with the Governor-in-Council shall have power in all cases to grant the modification of or exemption from the requirements of this section upon such conditions, if any, as the Board may deem expedient",
曹
Mr. SHELTON HOOPER minuted-Is it at present necessary for the Board to apply to the Governor-in-Council for authority not enforce section 175? What authority has the Governor-in-Council to compel the Board to
enforce this section" ?
to
Mr. LAU CHU-PAK-A very sensible suggas tion. The Board can refrain from taking action in special cases without troubling the Governor-in-Council.
The REGISTRAR-GENERAL-I am not sure that the Supreme Court could not compel unofficial members to enforce the law. I am sure the Government can compal Government
Servants to do so.
Mr. HOOPER-With regard to cases coming under section 175, I would ask members to allow such to stand over till the report of the Commission is out. The official members being deprived of the information I and my unofficial colleagues have, I think it places them in a very inferior position. With reference to the minutes regarding the Governor-in- Council, I think
am only quoting the law when I say that the Governor-in-Council bas no power to compel ns to enforce any section of this Ordinance, because it does not come under his notice till we apply to him. If we don't comply with any section of this Ordinance, it is
away in the street was submitted as follows :— Sir, I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your latter of the 1st instant, from which it is inferred that the Sanitary Board has no suggestions to offer for the mitigation of the grave nuisance and outrage to decency com. mitted by the Chinese population in casting (2) It away large numbers of their dead. appears that two remedies were suggested to the. Board-one, the cremation of abandoned corpses, the other the institution of more Chinese branch hospitals. I may sta' that the Government, as at present advised, does not propose to adopt the former, and that if fails to see what useful object would be gained by considering the latter until it is made apparent that the existence of the branch hospitals and dispensaries which have been alrealy established is produc ing au affect in the mitigation of the evil. (8) It was because the periodical returnï furnished to the Government showed that no such effect hd as yet followed the institution of these hospitals and dispensaries that the Colonial Secretary's letter of the 6th ultimo was by Sir Matthew Nathan's direction, addressed to the Board. (4) As a misapprehension appears to exist among the members of the Board on the subject of the reason for the dumping of dead bodies. I may state that the Police Department can furnish abundant evidence that such dumping existed in an aggravated form.prior to the year 1891, and the institution of measures for the prevention and mitigation of plague.
Mr. LAU CHU.PK minuted: Before 1894 if my memory serves me correctly, only the bodies of the infants of the most ignorant class of Chinese
were dumped, where superstition prevailed over
common sense, but not the bodies of grown up persongs · Amougat the better class, their infants when seriously sick or in a moribund state were generally sent to the convents. It would be interesting to know the number of abandoned bodies picked up, where they were
picked up, and their ages, during the last 20 years. said before, the question requires careful inves tigation.
As I
The REGISTRAe-General-The following particulars relating to the practice of abindon. ing bodies in the streets, etc and its connection with infectious disease have been collected from the annual sanitary reports, the plagde reports, and the reports of officers in charge of mortuaries. Smallpox-In 1903 out of 41 Chinese cases of smallpox 23 or 56 per cent were found abandoned in the streets. Plague- According to Dr. Pearse the ratio of the uamb r of bodies of persons who had died from plague picked up in the streets, etc., to the total number of reported cases of plaque was in 1898, 23.15 in 1899, 24.2; in 1900, 29.5; în 1901, 19.4 in 1902, 24.6; and in 1903, 31.7 per cent. In other reports the percentage is given in 1816 a 23,0; in 1898 a 36.0 and 25.1; in 1899 as 40.0; in 1900 as 37.1; in 1904 a 26.0), în 1905 as 18.4 per cent. In Kowloon in 1904, 106 deaths from plague were registered, and of these 50 bodies or 47 per cent were found abandoned in the carveta,