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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
what I said on that occasion, because it has a very direct bearing on the subject. I said: In view of the number of hospitals now in existence in the Colony, the number of nurses at present engaged by the local Government seems to be altogether inadequate. The result of working short-handed is that the nurses are often subjected to an undue strain owing to long hours, having to attend to boo large number of patients at ons time and with entirely too little opportunity for the rest and recreation which is so necessary to women engaged in so arduous and important a profession, while we understand it is not infrequently the case that a nurse engaged in maternity cases has at the same time to attend to other patients. The matter has recently been much discussed in private circles and the unofficial members are aware that considerable feeling is felt in certain quarters that whatever may be happening in other departments of the Government service, here at all events there is reason to believe we
are very shorthanded. ** Now, since then the staff has been stil further reduced by two nurses. Proba- tioner dressers, although they are very useful, cannot possibly take the places of nurses. Those nurses have got to be in charge si a certain number of wards and patients, and that pure nurses' work which was considered two years ago to be too onerous is still more so now. Therefore, the unofficial members can only view with the greatest possible regret this reduction in the staff. In such a climate as this, good nursing is of the utmost importance, and surely it is one of the last if not the very 1st-sections of the Government staff in which economy should be exercised. Good nursing, of course, cannot be obtain- ed unless nurses have Rupie leisure during working days and a reasonable time for leave,
Then there is another point Although the figures put before us for next year show two privat nurses, as a matter of fact I am assured that for some con. siderable time past only one nurse has been available for private nursing. Two mem- bers of the unofficial body told me that of their own knowledge, and I also heard it out. The greatest possible difficulty has been experienced during the last few months in getting the advantage even of one private nurse, owing to the demand made in the Government Civil Hospital. Now that. Bir, we maintain, is an absolute breach of faith on the part of the Govern
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ment. Whatever economy ought to be xercised, there ought to be no economy in the two nurses to be permanently available and the chief call on their time must be for outside nursing. I think it has some connection with The Queen Victoria Jubilee Fund, when there was a fund reised to start a Nursing Home under the auspices of Mrs. Chamberlain, and some nurses were imported here and the experi- ment was made. It was not an altogether satisfactory one, and after some time it was decided that it would be for the greater good of the Colony to hand the Fund over to the Government to be administered by them in the interests of the public, and the two nurses should always be available for public service. A sum of $10,000 or 820,000--the balance of the Fund-was handed over to the Govern- ment to that end. I trust that this matter it is the second time I have had to bring it up-will receive the very serious consideration of your Excellency,
With regard to Education, there is a 301all incrasse of which
entirely We know that of late years approve. greater care has been bestowed upon the control of the numerous Schools-Chinese and others-in the Colony, and we entirely support the policy of the Government in carrying out that reform. Still, I regret to say that I have been informed by people who ought to know what they are talking, that the supe vi ion of the verna- cular schools is not what it ought to be, and that s a matter which might havo further consideration. After all, tho amount spent on our Education is only 3 per cent., of the total income-not an excessive amount and any other calls your Excellency wishes to make upon the Colony to encourage the education, super- vision and training of the Chinese children of the Colony will be gladly supported by the unofficial members the more so as during the last twelve months we have seen and heard how much harm has been done in Chins by the strenuous German propaganda carried on there. The only way to counteract that is to encourage the education of the Chinese children in this Colony, in such a way that they will be taught, by unbiased masters, the difference between right and wrong.
is the railway. At the present, the net Another point which I wish to refer to
less than 1 per cent, on the invested revenue of this railway is merely rather