The Daily Press. Hongkong, May 7th, 1867.
THE PUBLIC HEALTH BILL
The ACTING ATTORNEY-GENERAL—Pursuant, sir, to the notice which I gave at the last meeting of this Council, I beg to move the first reading of a Bill entitled "An Ordinance for amending the laws relating to public health in the colony of Hongkong." As this Bill will no doubt entail a great outlay on the owner of property and perhaps on Government itself, as it interferes to some extent with private rights of property and must affect in some way or other every member of this community, I think it right I should fully state the reasons for bringing it in and the necessity which exists for sound and stringent enactments.
In view of the importance of the matter and the fact that it is not intended to go at once with the Bill, but to give every one interested a full and ample opportunity of studying it and investigating the details of it, and of offering their objections to it, if any, I trust I may be allowed to depart on this occasion from the rule which ordinarily obtains at this Council, and to state the objects and reasons to-day instead of waiting till the second reading.
I feel the Government is bound to show, firstly, the necessity for stringent measures to remedy the existing evil, and, secondly, that judging from past experience in other Colonies, the remedies proposed, if carried out, will cure the evil and secure us from the introduction and ravages of cholera and other contagious diseases.
It should now be well known that the preservation of life and health in great measure depends on the faithful prosecution of sanitary works. That will be the keynote of my remarks to-day.
The subject of the Sanitary state of Hongkong is no new one. I came this morning upon a report of Dr. Ayres, dated 5th April, 1875. I will read only one extract from it. He says:-
This is a simple statement of facts as I have found them, and I think it will not be found difficult, after this explanation, for those who read this account to present in their imaginations a slight idea of the state of filth in which at present the lowest class of Chinese exist.
I have not spoken of the state of the drains in the better quarters of the town, for that is patent to the eyes and noses of the public and attracts sufficient attention. If it were not for the heavy rains flushing them frequently in the hot weather, matters would be worse still.
The typhoon was a great sanitary visitor in the lower quarters of the town, and though it caused a great amount of destruction of rotten old buildings, it did a world of good.
From this it will be seen that every condition exists for the development of cholera or fevers of a typhoid character; if the seeds are once sown, they will have a fair start.
Port Louis, Mauritius, a town similarly situated at the base of high hills, with every similar convenience for good drainage, and having an equally bad state of things, but certainly not worse, has suffered most severely from epidemics, though once it was a renowned sanitarium.
I was in the Colonial service there in the fever epidemic of 1867 and '68, and I sincerely hope I may never see such another, the death rate at one time exceeding 600 people daily.
Let the rains fall short, or the monsoons cease to blow here for a time, and Hongkong would be the scene of a similar catastrophe.
That condition of things occurred in the Mauritius, and it is not impossible it may occur here.
There are two other letters from the same doctor, dated January and April, 1874. I spare the Council the reading of them, but if any hon. member of the Council should have any doubts about the necessity of legislation regarding sanitary matters, I would only ask him to read these reports.
The want of sanitary works and legislation has also occupied the attention of my hon. friend the Surveyor-General.
On account of the conflicting views entertained here, the Secretary of State in 1881 determined to send out a professional engineer, and he instructed the Crown Agents to place themselves in communication with some engineer of repute.
Mr. Chadwick was appointed. He came out, I believe, in 1881, and left some time in 1882, and afterwards presented his report.
The necessity of the ordinance and of the execution of sanitary works can be doubted by no one after reading Mr. Chadwick's report, and the Government would be guilty of gross neglect in one of its primary duties, were it after this warning to neglect any longer the prosecution of these much needed works.
In submitting his report Mr. Chadwick says the sanitary condition of Hongkong is defective and calls for energetic remedial measures.
The death rate is high, while the average age at death is low.
To show this, at page 64 he gives a table. I will not read the whole of it, but will only give some of the figures.
Victoria, Hongkong in 1881. Mean age at death of all who died, men, women, and children. 18.32. In all England in 1840, 29; Croydon in 1878, 31, Oxford in 1878, 29.
You see how unfavourably we compare. The mean age here being only 18.
Then he gives us the mean age of all who died over twenty years of age. Hongkong in 1881—men 42, women 46, all 43. All England in 1840—all 45; Croydon in 1878—men 66.6, women 58.4; Exeter in 1878—men 56.7, women 62.2.
In another letter he says:---
I am of opinion that the existing state of sanitation of Hongkong is most seriously defective.
The houses inhabited by the poorer Chinese are inconvenient, ill-constructed and overcrowded.
The amount of cubic space per head is small enough, but this is a minor evil compared to the want of space and facilities for cleanliness.
I have also ascertained that these house drains are as a rule badly constructed and therefore dangerous to health.
I am of opinion that the laws which affect house construction and sanitation are inadequate and require thorough revision, and that a complete and stringent system of sanitary inspection is necessary to introduce and enforce improvement, and I believe that this may be done without interfering to any serious extent with the social customs and institutions of the Chinese.
Now, with respect to building, in his first letter he says:-
Both the design and construction of existing dwellings is defective—the Building Ordinance requires complete revision.
The amended law must be enforced with more rigour and intelligence than at present, particularly as to alleys, lanes, and open spaces.
The system of house drainage is radically bad.
The whole of the dwellings within the town require redraining, and unless this is done but little health improvement will be made.
The complete, cheap and proper execution of this work can only be effected by the Government undertaking it.
Mr. Chadwick then points out some of the remedial measures he would suggest, such as the improvement of existing sewers, scavenging, and night soil removal, public latrines, and an organised sanitary staff, the employment of district watchmen to enforce attention, and he ends his letter with these very important remarks, to which I would draw attention:--
I trust that even should these suggestions be found undesirable or impracticable my report will show the necessity for strong and complete measures of sanitation, and I trust they will be undertaken for the immediate benefit of the public health without waiting for the necessity to be demonstrated by the irresistible logic of a severe epidemic.
In speaking of the necessity of taking measures at once we must remember that our negligence in sanitary matters has not yet produced all its effects.
We have not felt the results yet. These results do not show themselves at once, but things will go on from bad to worse, and what is easy to cure now will be difficult if not impossible later on.
Dr. Ayres has mentioned the case of Mauritius, which was once a renowned sanitarium.
Allow me for a few moments to allude to it.
Unfortunately I have had a much longer experience of it than Dr. Ayres had, and since 1854 I have seen that once fair island devastated by epidemics of cholera, small-pox, and fever, which have spread death and ruin around, and this has seriously affected the prosperity of the island.
No one will go there who can possibly help it, and no one who can invest his money anywhere else will invest it there.
To give but one instance of the effect on the value of house property in Port Louis.
It has simply no value whatever.
Unfortunately in 1866, before the fever broke out, I purchased one of the nicest houses for $14,000, and I cannot now get $4,000 for it.
And it is altogether unsaleable.
To remedy the defects of sanitation in Mauritius now, would cost much more than the Colony could afford, whereas, if they had attended to it some years ago, they would not have suffered so severely from epidemics as they have since 1854.
Now, with respect to the death rate being high Mr. Chadwick makes the following remarks in his report:-
111.—Before discussing the defects of the present system, and the means of remedying them, I think it desirable to examine the available evidence as to the sanitary condition of the Chinese, and to see whether they are on the whole more or less healthy than other races.
Page 32