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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
As Chairman of the Chinese Temples Committee I welcome this evidence of interest, and I will with pleasure invite the Committee's attention to Dr. LEE's ideas. Meanwhile Members of this Council may care to know that the Chinese Temples Committee has by law to apply any revenue from its temples first of all to the observance of customary ceremonies and to the physical maintenance of temple property. The carrying out of these duties, insofar as funds are available, goes therefore some way already towards the end which Dr. LEE had in mind. May I however add that I will always be glad to receive any further suggestions or practical comments (or even impractical ones), which he or anyone else may care to send me, for consideration by the Chinese Temples Committee. Thank you. (Applause).
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: --Mr. Chairman, in rising to support the motion I would like to thank the Unofficial Members who have raised several matters concerning public health and hygiene.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN proposed that we should hold a "Keep Your City Clean" week as part of our Health Education programme and that this should include, among other topics, anti-spitting propaganda. I shall ask the Health Education Select Committee to consider how best his proposals might be implemented. The same Select Committee might also be asked to re-assess the present status of "Miss Ping On”, on whose prestige and age doubts appear to have been cast; I think she has served us well so far but the Committee's investigations might well indicate that she needs a rest, or a "face lift", or even that she is completely passé.
The tangible progress made by Health Education must always seem slow and hard won, but Health teaching cannot be imposed upon people; we have to make them want, of their own accord, to live in cleaner and more healthy surroundings.
The response of the public is, quite naturally, always much better in the face of an epidemic or the threat of any serious health danger, and the general "clean up" of the urban areas which was evident during the cholera outbreak last year showed what it was possible to achieve― but it is a good deal more difficult to maintain improvement continuously.
Mr. Li Fook-shu has again referred to the question of food hygiene and I am glad to be able to say that the policy set out last year has been actively pursued. The fact that it has not yet been entirely successful may, I think, be attributed partly to the fantastic speed of development in many areas, with which it is difficult to keep pace. I must also agree that the standard of some restaurants and food factories is still below what is considered satisfactory but the surprise inspection system developed as the result of a suggestion by Dr. Raymond LEE at the annual conventional debate of this Council last year has proved of considerable value: I assure Members that the staff of the Hygiene Division are giving their fullest attention to the raising of standards in existing premises as well as to ensuring that new premises are only permitted when they satisfy the high standards now required.
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Mr. MARDEN also touched on food hygiene, particularly in regard to cooked food-stalls and the possible use of "economy canteens" for industrial and other workers.
This latter is a most constructive suggestion which should certainly be re-examined. I say re-examined because "economy canteens" have been operated, though not by this Council, on a limited scale in the past—but they did not, at that time, prove generally successful. There is no doubt that the economics of providing good cheap meals for workers is a matter worthy of close study.
The problem of closure orders, especially in respect of unlicensed food premises was raised by several speakers, and as Mr. Li Fook-shu pointed out it is a somewhat delicate problem. Nevertheless, the neglect of a Magistrate's legal order must be regarded as a serious matter and this problem is now under consideration.
Both Mr. MARDEN and Mr. Li Fook-shu referred to the seemingly ever-present problem of offensive trades. My friend the Director of Public Works has already referred to the important question of siting but I am glad to say that improvements have recently been made in the hygiene of bone-storing establishments. A method of treating bones prior to storage has been tested experimentally and found to be most successful.
We are carrying out further experiments and it is hoped very shortly to introduce the method generally. It will, I am sure, greatly reduce both the nuisance from flies and the unpleasant smell which arise from these establishments.
This brings me to Dr. Alison BELL's remarks on the question of fly nuisance in general, and I am sure all of us fully agree with her views on this matter. Although I cannot vouch for the accuracy of her statement that there are now more flies than at any time in the past 14 years, and statistical proof of this might be hard to obtain, I do not wish for a moment to minimize the potential health dangers of this insect.
Cholera reminded us of the danger of flies as mechanical carriers of a dread disease, but we must remember that they are also responsible for the spread of many other food-borne intestinal diseases of a less dramatic nature.
The method of dealing with fly breeding
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