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extensive and onerous duties. No objection was offered to the
appointment of a Cadet Officer in his place but in my view it
was essential that there should still remain upon the Board a
Government Medical Officer and I proposed that the Medical
Officer of Health should take the place of the Captain
Superintendent of Police so as to admit the vote of one expert.
This proposal when made by one of my predecessors had led to the
resignation of all the Unofficial Members. I was willing to
substitute another Government Medical Officer for the Medical
Officer of Health but it would have been difficult to find an
Officer with sufficient time, and with specialised knowledge. I
am most glad therefore that my view in this matter though at
first much criticised and opposed in the local Press &c., was
unanimously accepted in Council.
10.
The Commissioners criticised the
policy hitherto pursued in the question of cubicles. In the
pursuit of a wholly desirable ideal drastic regulations had
been framed, and the proviso enabling the Governor-in-Council
on the recommendation of the Sanitary Board to grant exemptions
or modifications had been overlooked. The conditions of Chinese
life, the structure of the vast majority of existing tenement
houses, and the prejudices of the people had been ignored in
the endeavour to promote Sanitary reform. Property-owners were
loud