In reply to this communication the President of this Board directs me to say, that, in his opinion, the facts set forth in the Colonial Surgeon's report show an immediate need for some efficient and comprehensive sanitary organisation in the island of Hong-Kong.
The improvements which are required would consist in systematic drainage, water supply, and cleansing of the entire urban district; in the establishment of scavengage for the daily cleansing of all public ways, and for the removal of refuse from private houses; in the enforcement of certain rules as to the keeping and slaughtering of cattle or other animals within the inhabited area, and generally as to the conduct of offensive occupations; and not least, with reference to that class of dwellings on which the Colonial Surgeon especially comments, in placing them under such regulation and superintendence as may prevent them from being unduly crowded, and may provide for their being kept in a cleanly and wholesome condition, in closing permanently at the same time such as are unfit for human habitation, pulling down at least some, if not the entire number, as will leave passages for proper currents of air through these dangerously packed masses of building, and establishing strict rules as to the future construction and re-habitation of such dwellings.
The President, remembering within
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