པ 42ཡིག - T
4 t
COPY.
0.0.
22257
&
RECE [REG 21 AUG 09]
D. Overcrowding of the Chinese Population.
(a) Overcrowding in dwellings
(b) Surface overcrowding.
(a) Overcrowding in dwellings: -
453
In 1865 the first attempt was made to license lodging houses for Chinese labourers and emigrants, but abandoned in the face of a threatened strike. Several subsequent attempts were made by different Registrar General in the same behalf but failed.
The Public Health Ordinance was proclaimed in May 1883, and in November of the same year a Committee of the Sanitary Board was appointed to enquire into and report on the extent of overcrowding which was supposed to exist in Victoria.
On the 17th October, 1890 the Committee presented its report and recommended inter alia that overcrowding in Coolie houses should be dealt with under the lodging house clauses of the Health Ordinance.
Byelaws for the licensing and regulation of Common Lodging Houses were drawn up and after much correspondence with the Government finally approved as they now stand by the Leg. Council on 22nd May, 1891. These byelaws were to have come into force on the 1st day of August, 1891, but owing to opposition on the part of the keepers of the Lodging houses to the new law the matter was allowed to drift till August 1894 when the Board took the matter up again and owing to its action the byelaws made in May 1891 were put into force on the 1st of January 1895 and enforced in the face of the strongest opposition on the part of the Chinese which led to the greatest strike ever known in the history of the Colony.
In 1888 a Committee of the Board consisting of Mr Mitchell-Innes and Mr Ide was appointed to consider the question