176
"
The
"Chinese, and even their very poverty, thus work to their advantage (all sanitary measur more than repay their cost), for it compels them to utilise all excrementitious matter. Every particle of every kind of manure, besides rags, paper, etc., are collected and preserved with the greatest care. private privies, which are all out of doors, are visited daily by these manure collectors, and so great "is the demand for it, that no payment is made to these scavengers. Foreigners pay a trifle monthly to guarantee respectability, cleanliness, and regularity on the part of the collector. The healthiness of our foreign settlements in China is, in a great measure, owing to the absence of water closets in the dwelling-houses, which, in Europe, are a fruitful source of disease. Gases, such as sulphuretted "and carburetted hydrogen, are not so injurious to health when given off in the open air, as when escaping from sewers. China is, par excellence, the country of bad smells, and yet, as we have seen, "the people do not seem to suffer from them.
14
The removal of excreta and the disposal of sewer water is the sanitary problem of the day in "Great Britain. Our sewers allow transference of gases and organic molecules from house to house "and place to place; occasionally, by bursting, leakage, or absorption, the ground is contaminated, "and the water supply is constantly in danger of being poisoned and contaminated; and all these dangers are greater from being concealed and being beyond individual control. Fevers and cholera "are thus possibly propagated from bouse to house." In China we are entirely free from this danger."
With the best possible intentions, the Colonial Surgeon and the Surveyor General have, from time to time, been arguing against Dr. DUDGEON's views and the long established practice of the Chinese community. Those Officials advocate an underground net work of drains and sewers in Hongkong, and of compelling the Chinese to build their houses and to modify their domestic arrange- ments in accordance with "the methods of Western Sanitary Science." I have pointed out to them that the methods of Western Sanitary Science of a few years ago, which they are so fond of quoting, are no longer considered infallible; and that some Public Health Officers in England seem even disposed to take a lesson now from the experience of China and to adopt views similar to those of Dr. DuDGEON. I have reminded them that the only fatal cases of Typhoid fever that occurred in Hongkong since my arrival, have been in European built houses with water-closets; and that the Chinese residents never suffer from Typhoid fever or Diptheria.
Some of the provisions of Ordinance 8 of 1856, have undoubtedly done good, and I have insisted on those provisions being strictly enforced. In addition to this Ordinance, I have been able in all cases where verandahs are built over road ways or Crown Lands to supplement the existing law by stipulating for some extra sanitary improvements. Lot 4 was originally sold by the Government in the year 1841. Some of the buildings that were still on it last year, and some of the buildings now standing on the adjoining lots, were erected before the Building Ordinance of 1856 was passed. As I pointed out in December last, the new buildings were to be better than the old ones. It was only after reciving a report from the Surveyor General to that effect that I then recorded upon the plans my sanction to the proposed verandalis. The result has been in this case that some Chinese houses of an inferior class have been replaced by houses of a superior class, substantially built, and particu- larly well ventilated.
I enclose for Your Lordship's information a copy of the Building Ordinance No. 8 of 1856, and a copy of the Verandah Regulations. I also enclose a copy of four clauses that, after consulting the Surveyor General and the leading Chinese householders and builders in July 1878, I was able to add to the Verandah Regulations, with a view to improved sanitary measures being adopted. The Memo- rial of the Chinese, out of which these four new clauses originated, was published in the Government Gazette in July 1878. It is an interesting document, and I venture to ask Your Lordship's attention to what they say in paragraph 3, respecting the recent rules of Western Sanitary Science.
For Your Lordship's Information, I also transmit copies of a correspondence that passed in August and October 1879, respecting the old Chinese houses in the neighbourhood of Lot 4, and the necessity for securing proper sanitary arrangements in the vicinity of the Barracks.
I have nothing to say in defence of some of those old houses that were built thirty years ago. Under the operation of the existing law, better houses, not open to sanitary objections, replace them from time to time. All I can do is to have them clean, whitewashed and not overcrowded, and to insist that the Sanitary Officers keep the streets, nullahs and public latrines in the vicinity in proper order.
With respect to the alleged overcrowding, unusual sickness, and want of cleanliness in the vicinity of those houses, the Colonial Surgeon reported on the 29th of August, 1879-
for
"These houses can hardly be called overcrowded. In no case is there less than 250 cubic feet every individual inhabitant, men, women and children included; and never reckoning the space "in verandahs and kitchen, the average space would be about 400 cubic feet for each individual.
"There has been no unusual sickness in these houses that I can ascertain.'
I have, &c.,
(Signed)
J. POPE HENNESSY.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 15th July, 1880.
MY LORD,Adverting to my despatch No. 99 of 12th instant, I now lay before Your Lordship some copies of the original Annual Report of the Colonial Surgeon, Dr. AYRES, for the year 1874, which I ordered to be printed in full with the minutes and marginal notes.
Two special reports of the Colonial Surgeon, made in 1874, have also been found in the Colonial Secretary's Office,one on the Sanitary state of the brothels licensed by the Registrar General's Department, and the other on the state of certain houses where pigs were kept under licences from the Registrar General's Department. Both of these reports have been sent to the printer, and copies will be transmitted to Your Lordship by the next Mail.
In paragraph 12 of my despatch No. 97 of the 8th instant, I referred to the fact that I had insisted on certain useful provisions in Ordinance 8 of 1856 being enforced in all new buildings or re-constructions. As an illustration of this, 1 enclose for Your Lordship's information an application (with the various minutes showing the official action thereupon) that came before me in January 1879 from the leading European Architects in the Colony, suggesting that I should allow certain houses which were to be built for a Chinese Bank and a Goldsmith's Shop to be constructed without kitchens or cooking places. As I usually do in such matters, I desired to see the opinions of the leading Chinese on the question before I finally decided it; and I venture to draw Your Lordship's attention to the sensible views these gentlemen expressed. The Acting Chinese Secretary's report, dated 1st February, 1879, is as follows:-
"I consulted the leading merchants of the Nám-pak-hong Guild on the subject. They are of 'opinion that in Section VIII of Ordinance 8 of 1856 we have a very good and useful rule, viz., that "in all buildings which are used or liable to be used, either partly or entirely, as dwelling houses, there "should be safe cooking places. With reference to the arguments adduced in Messrs. WILSON and "SALWAY'S letter, they are of opinion that, although the owner of the premises may wish his tenants or On “employés to obtain their food from cook-shops, there is no certainty that they would always do so. "the contrary, they are of opinion that the employés on the premises would be certain to boil, at any "rate, their tea on the premises, and boil water every evening for bathing, the consequence of which "would be that the smoke would become a nuisance to the other tenants, and that the lighting of fires "in unsafe places would endanger the whole house and the surrounding houses too.”
The statement of the native merchants that the Chinese tenants and employés would have to boil water every evening for bathing purposes, would not surprise any one really acquainted with the habits of even the poorest Chinese. No doubt, certain Europeans in Hongkong, as well as in California and Australia denounce the Chinese as a dirty race, who never bathe, and even the Colonial Surgeon has, in the suppressed passages of the enclosed report, made a few general statements on this subject that are somewhat misleading. The fact is that, in this important sanitary practice, they are a clean people, and even in the lower classes set a good example, which our soldiers and sailors here would do well to follow.
In another despatch I shall do myself the honour of proposing the formation of a separate Sani- tary Department in this Colony, somewhat similar to the Department of the Public Health Your Lordship established in 1872 in Sierra Leone. No fresh legislation will be required to start such a Department in Hongkong, as clause XIII of Ordinance 9 of 1867, and clause XXXV of Ordinance 10 of 1867, give the Governor ample power to appoint a Medical Inspector of the Sanitary State of the Colony, and an Inspector of Hospitals. Those clauses have not been hitherto availed of, princi- pally, I understand, on account of the unwillingness of my predecessore to increase the establishment charges. The satisfactory state of the Colonial revenue will, however, enable Your Lordship to appropriate a reasonable sum for this object in future.
The Right Honourable THE EARL Of Kimberley,
I have, &c.,
(Signed)
J. POPE HENNESSY.
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies,
St.,
For
&c.
The Right Honourable THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY,
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies,
FC.,
Fo.,
ge.