The former duty was contemplated when Section XV of Ordinance No. 10 of 1867 was drafted, and the latter can now be enforced by a Departmental Order or by a Regulation by the Governor in Council, if such a course would not conflict with the powers of Section VII.
In my opinion it is not necessary for the Surveyor General to inspect or report upon the houses to be licensed.
21st January, 1874.
C. C. SMITH,
Registrar General.
MINUTE BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
This is a horrible revelation, and I feel under obligation to the Colonial Surgeon for the pains he has taken in bringing the subject to notice.
Measures must be adopted to remedy the evils pointed out, Send for the perusal of members and bring before next Executive Council.
22nd January, 1874.
A. E. KENNEDY.
MINUTE BY THE GENERAL OFFICER COMMANDING THE TROOPS.
In the first place I should cancel all licences to keep brothels. I cannot think these establishments more necessary here than in any of the other British Colonies. I have never known them to exist except at Hongkong and Singapore.
When sailors and others arrive at Hongkong, I know there are such places of resort; they immediately fly to them on landing, for a spree, when they get drunk and become riotous, and finish with a visit to the police office.
As to improving these houses in any way, it is impossible; they are so saturated with filth that they cannot be properly cleansed. The streets are so narrow and the houses so badly constructed and ventilated, that it would be impossible to make the present buildings healthy, or habitable except for Chinese.
I would therefore recommend that they are all knocked down and proper healthy houses built, after the streets have been levelled and widened; the longer they are allowed to remain in their present state the worse they will be.
I think that a certain number of comfortable, clean, well-ventilated houses might be built and let to the most respectable women of this class, and not rented by old women, who make a living by keeping girls for prostitution. The girls would then be induced to keep a clean, tidy place, or men would not care to visit them.
H. W. WHITFEILD,
26th January, 1874.
Major General.
No. 11.
REPORT OF THE COLONIAL SURGEON ON HIS INSPECTION OF THE TOWN OF VICTORIA,
AND ON THE PIG LICENSING SYSTEM.
HONGKONG, APRIL 1874.
COLONIAL SURGEON, DR. AYRES, TO HON. J. G. AUSTIN, COLONIAL SECRETARY.
HONGKONG, 15th April, 1874.
SIR, I have the honour to forward to you a report on the result of my rounds with the Sanitary Inspectors, for the information of His Excellency the Governor.
As I have already stated in my reports on the inspection of brothels, there are many things brought to notice there that are equally applicable to private houses, such as bad drainage, deficient ventilation, foul privies, filthy condition of houses, &c., &c.; but if I was astonished at the state of the brothels, they did not at all prepare me for what I was to find in private houses. As was the case with the brothels before I came, so it is with the back slums of the town; little or no superintendence has been thought of over the Inspectors. The Inspectors of Brothels, the Sanitary and Market Inspectors, have all been left pretty much to their own devices, as I have shown and shall show, nor does it seem to have come within the province of my predecessors to do this work.
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