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who were accommodated within those warde in the past will
now be more suitably accommodated. I see before me many ladies and gentlemen who probably have never con- side: A the scope of the work that has been done by the Tung Wa Committee and by this valuable institution. I may tell them that every year between two and three thousand patients are treated in this hospital. that here every man or woman eutering the hospital, may elect whether he or she will be trosied according to the Chinese method of treatment or to the European method. The wards are all the same, the beds are side by side, the conditions are identical, and therefore those who enquire are in a position to see which method of treatment offers the greatest prospect of recovery. Besides these thousands of pa- tients who are accommodated every year within the walls of the Lospital, a number--reaching, I think, 140,000—of out-patients are annually treated at the dispensary, which is situated at the opposite side of the street. More than that, this hospital not alone will take within its walls those who are sick and of whose recovery there may be hopes, it will receive the dying and it will bury the dead, and not alone that, for the poor who are not ill, but who have no place to shelter, are here taken in by this valuable society and accommodated for a time within the walls of the hospital. You will therefore understand how large is the measure of work done by this instituion, and looking back upon the accounts of this Colony for several years, and remembering the condition of the ity ten or fifteen years ago and now, I question if any factor that has brought to bear in the assaagement of misery in the City of? Victoria has had a greater share in the good work than the Tung Wa Hospital. When laying the foundation of another extension which is being made by the Chinese to the plague hospital, a short time ago, I spoke of the difficulties that probably would be experienced in carrying out sanitary measures in the city. What the effect of those sanitary measures has been who can tell? But I then said that all the steps that were being taken were being taken, so far as we could see, for the benefit of the Chinese people, and that we were all doing what we thought and felt was for the best, and I asked the Chinese "population to assist us in carrying out measures that must always be irksome and inconvenient to those upon whose houses those operations took place. I now take this public opportunity of thanking the Chinese people for the way in which they have responded to my request. This City of Victoria has been disinfooted from one end to the other. There has been great inconvenience, but never have we had occasion to use anything more than a mere request. The people have listened to the advice of the influential Chinese; they have assisted the Government, and in no city in the world have the operations of Sani- tary Boards been carried out with less friction and with greater co-operation from the inhabi- tants. For all this I thank the influential Chinese who havo assisted the Government, and I thank the people for the way in which they have responded to the advice of their leaders. A new Public Health Bill has just been passed that will be far-reaching in its operations, and will, I hope, make a great change in the com- fort and in the healthiness of the city in the future. One of the results of that Bill will be, I hope, to reduce the overcrowding in the city, and possibly to enable the Government to have more open spaces, 60 that the people will have some place possibly for recreation that is not covered with houses. We are now standing in the district of Taipingeban, which in 1:94 was the very worst centre of the visitation of the plague, and at great expeuse
the Government resumed น portion of Taipingshan and swept it clear of these plague-stricken houses. From time to time + here has been a question whether the Government shall not dispose of that land and bave it again built upon with more houses. I have come to the conclusion that the greatest improvement in that open space between the new extension is the bright sunlight and the pure air of heaven, and it is my intention to recommend to His Majesty's Government that the vacant space resumed in Taipingshan shall be made a poople's garden. The health of the city cannot be placed for ona instant in the scale against a mere question of dollars and cents, and I have no doubt that the cotamunity at large will approve of this deci- sion. We are all aware of the efforts that are now being made to combat the two great diseases from which we have most suffered, and these are malaria and plague; and, throwing your eye back bebind 1894, I rather think that of the two fearful diseases malaria is the worst. Over all these long years it has claimed its yearly tale of victims, and until the discovery made by Dr. Rcss on the means of propagation by a particular kind of mosquito, we know nothing about it further than the discovery of certain medicines which assisted in its cure. Now that we have discov rod the source of this disease, it is the earnest desire of the Medical Department and of the Sanitary Board to prevent the disease by the destruction of mosquitoes. I know that ignorant people may think that the mosquito is a small thing, and may laugh at the idea of saving human life by the simple destruction of so very small a thing as a moquito, but when they remember that the simple bite of this small insect, which they can hardly see without a magnifying glass, may cost the life of the father of a family or carry away the very best-loved children, the Chinese people will begin to under- stand the importance of destroying mosquitoes. I ask therefore the Chinese gentlemen and all the Chinese present to impress upon their friends and their acquaintances the importance of helping the Sanitary Board in its efforts to destroy mos- quitoes. There is another matter with reference to plague that I take this opportunity of impress ing upon the Chinese people. We know that of the people who go to hospital a large number die, and I cannot help thinking that many of those who have died of play us have died because the disease has not been taken in time. Now, under the new law if a person who feels himself iil will only apply in time to a doctor be can be treated in his own house and the Government will undertake that he may be treated by u Chinese doctor or an European doctor as he chocses, and the Government will undertake to find lodgings for the remaining people in the house, leaving him to be treated by his own convinced people. I a
many of these cased where poor Kaen and wotuen are left to die and their bodies afterwards left in the street-that many of these cases are allowed to run their fatal course because the i people are afraid, first, because they would at. once be taken to the hospital, and, second, because the house would be disinfected. Disin- fected of course the house must be. My house bas been disinfected and I don't like it (laughter), but any sensible man must see that if a mad dog were running about his house he would destroy it and that a mad dog is not one- tenth as dangerous as a plague germ once it makes its entrance to your body. What I have said as regards this reporting of cases of illness in the very beginning I know is only saying what the! Sanitary Board would say themselves and are anxious about, and I wish to try the experiment, I want to feel that in some few cases at least you will come forward in cases of illness, and let that illaess be taken in time and we will see
that
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