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was
considered in 1894 by the Retrenchment Committee of which I was
Chairman, and the unanimous opinion of the Committee was that a
great change ought to be made and the whole matter taken over by Government,
who should place at the head of this important department either a
Sanitary Engineer with a Medical Officer as adviser: or vice versa,
a Medical Officer possessing a due knowledge of Sanitary matters as
head, with a Sanitary Engineer as assistant. The whole responsibility
for the health of the Colony would then have been placed on the
Government.
From what I learnt in Hong Kong and especially when serving as
Chairman of the Tai Ping Shan Compensation Board, I believe that the
greater part of, if not all, the insanitary state of the Colony
arises from overcrowding. In the Public Health Ordinance the requirements
as to space were reduced to a minimum and even then the provisions
against overcrowding were suspended and were only to be enforced in certain
parts of the town when and as the Governor by proclamation should direct.
When the ordinance had been passed, it was recognised as impossible to put
these clauses into operation for if you turned the people out of one part
of the city they would go and increase the evil in another. For many years
no proclamation was ever issued on this matter. I do not know what has been
done of late years or whether it has been found possible to take any steps
to come at this evil.
Soon after the Public Health Ordinance was passed the scheme of the
Praya Reclamation was brought forward; it was very strongly recommended
to and accepted by Government as a panacea for this evil, but from what
I can learn this increased area has afforded but little relief, as owing
to the growing commerce and business of the Colony the reclaimed space
has been taken up by additional offices, shops and stores. The proposed
reclamation in front of the East Praya may do something but not much, as
all the land about ...
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