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separated by narrow lanes and alleyways. When the population was small and the houses only one and two stories in height, the situation was not unsatisfactory. As the population increased the houses were heightened to four and five stories without any corresponding widening of the spaces separating them.
18. Year by year the population continued to increase, immigration being accelerated by unrest in China. Victoria was the centre of trade and therefore the centre of attraction. There was little room to build further accommodation and the new-comers had to squeeze into the already overcrowded pre- mises. Rooms were divided into cubicles which to a certain extent provided privacy but which interfered both with lighting and ventilation.
19. In some houses there are tiers of bunks placed against the walls, in others the rooms are divided into cubicles or cabins each measuring perhaps eight feet by eight feet and having parti- tions 6 feet in height. These cabins are not the temporary abodes of persons on a voyage but the more or less permanent homes of the people. There is little or no room for kitchens, and latrine accommodation is often limited to pail closets on the roofs of the buildings.
20. Year by year the Sanitary Department and the Building Authority have made efforts to improve the situation and with a considerable amount of success both as regards palliative and radical treatment. The task almost sisyphean in itself was rendered more difficult by paucity of water and by opposition put forward both by property owners and the occupiers.
21. It goes without saying that the maintenance of a satis factory standard of sanitation under such conditions is a most difficult problem and one which cannot be solved without the willing co-operation of the people. One thing is certain, so long as buildings are overcrowded and insanitary, no amount of external sanitation will give immunity from disease.
22. Within the last few years some 70 acres have been added to the eastern section of the town by reclamation from the sea. This locality which is known as the Praya East Reclamation has been laid out in accordance with modern town planning princi- ples, with wide streets, short lots and back-lanes. The greater part of it is now covered with dwelling houses which satisfy sanitary requirements. The density here is not more than 300
per acre.
23. Kowloon which is a comparatively new city has been town-planned on up-to-date lines with straight broad streets and back lanes. During the intercensus period 1921-1931 it increased in population 113.06 per cent. It is still rapidly growing and in a few years will equal Victoria or even exceed it. According to the census the density of population is 300 per acre,
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Influence of traditional beliefs.
24. The traditional beliefs of the uneducated Chinese as to the cause of diseases, the means of spread and the factors which affect its course are so at variance with modern teaching that there is little chance of promoting voluntary co-operation between them and the authorities in the matter of the prevention and control of disease until they can be brought to understand the true nature of the problems and are conscious of the useful- ness of the measures advocated. The proximity of China and the constant intercourse make it harder to overcome prejudices than is the case in countries further afield. The greatest hope lies in propaganda and education brought to the homes through public health nurses working as district visitors or in infant welfare centres and school welfare centres.
Propaganda which does not arouse the interest of the mother and her children has little practical value, However, leaders of opinion in China and leaders of Chinese thought in Hong Kong are making vigorous efforts to promote public health and public welfare along lines which have proved successful in the Occident, and the outlook is far more hopeful than was the case a few years ago when Chinese thought on matters of health was unduly swayed by old traditions and theories,
Quarantine impractical between Hong Kong and the River Ports.
25. So closely related are Hong Kong, Canton, Macao and the River Ports in the matter of trade, and such is the amount of traffic both human and goods which passes between them that up to date it has been found impossible to devise any system of quarantine which would effectually safeguard one city against introduction of disease from the other and at the same time preserve that freedom of commercial movements on which these cities depend for prosperity. It has been deemed best to treat them as forming one unit, as suburbs the one of the other, and to strive for a working agreement between the various health organisations to the end that some means, other than imposing restrictions against a whole port, may be found to prevent the spread of infection.
The Government Organisation for the promotion and maintenance of the Public Health.
26. The Colony has no municipality' in the ordinary accept- ed sense of the term, the Governor himself being head of the city and head of the port. The functions of a Municipal Council are included in the functions of the Legislative Council. The Colonial Heads of Department perform the duties which in a municipality would be performed by Municipal Heads of Depart-
ment,
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