519
under the Ordinance referred to Keepers of Brothels, and from which
Salary of £180
a
Sum
is paid to the Colonial Surgeon for the heavy
disagreeable duties
and
by
Venereal Disease Ordinance.
cast upon
The principle that private practice should be allowed to the Colonial
Surgeons having been conceded I will
weary you with many
and
not
:
Which might
support of it.
Grace with the
weighty arguments
be adduced in
It has never been suggested that the amount now paid to the Colonial
Surgeon is at all events too great
for the services required
and
duties
required of him.
I should
properly
be
expected and hope I should be
found
enabled to discharge all my official
duties with as much
efficiency as I have
hitherto done, the reduction
proposed would in effect be a call upon me to contribute, from
the private exercise of my profession £300,
to
the Public funds of the Colony,
a burden which I trust will not be
imposed upon me.
Within the last twelve
months an
increase has taken place
in the population of Hong Kong, chiefly amongst the Chinese and the poorer classes of Europeans, and within the same space of time
at least fifty per cent
advance
in the cost of living has occurred, so that the Colonial Surgeon's work
and his private expenditure have increased together.
The Nature
and
effect of
such work in a climate as that of Hong Kong may
be gathered