Q. Have they had epidemics in the Chinese quarter?-A. No, sir. The small-pox has been among them, as it has been among others, but I think there has been less small-pox among them--I mean the ratio of population allowed-than with the whites.
Vaccination.
109. On recently calling the attention of the Health Officer of Hongkong, Dr. Adams, to this evidence, he remarked that it agreed with his own experience, and that he was often surprised to see how very generally the Chinese passengers who came under his notice as Medical Emigration Officer, had been vaccinated or inoculated. He said he had rarely seen a Chinese child on whose arm could not be detected three or four of the characteristic marks of vaccination.
110. It is quite possible that the comparative freedom of the Chinese in San Francisco from small-pox, to which Dr. Stout refers, may, to some extent, be due to the enlightened action of the Directors of the largest hospital in Hongkong,--the Tung-wá Hospital. The Medical Staff of the Government does not do very much in the way of vaccination, so far as the great mass of the community is concerned. But certain Chinese doctors, who are paid by the Directors of the Tung-wá Hospital, are indefatigable vaccinators. They do not confine their labours to the town of Victoria, but travel through the villages of the Island, vaccinating all newly born children. Since 1878, they have gone beyond the Colony and vaccinated in the neighbouring towns and villages of the Kwangtung Province.
111. When it is remembered that Hongkong is constantly being visited by steamers and ships from places where small-pox exists, and that the rapid commercial movement in the Harbour renders the Colony peculiarly liable to the introduction of the disease, there can be little doubt that the immunity we have enjoyed for some years past has been largely due to the efficient vaccination conducted under the auspices of the Tung-wá Hospital.
112. The Directors are now building a special small-pox hospital to the south of the Tung-wá Hospital. All the expenses of this new building, as well as the salaries of the travelling vaccinators, are defrayed by the voluntary subscriptions of the Chinese community of Hongkong. This is exclusive of the annual subscriptions, amounting to about $7,000, they provide amongst themselves in aid of the endowment funds of the Tung-wá Hospital.
113. Dr. Stout's statements as to the healthiness of the Chinese in San Francisco, though living so closely packed, may tend to explain a discrepancy between the contradictory assertions made occasionally by some leading Europeans in this Colony, including even one or two Officials, and the annual reports made at the same time, for the information of Parliament, by my predecessor.
114. In Sir Arthur Kennedy's Blue Book report dated 10th September, 1874, he said:-"The general health of the Colony has been satisfactory." Mr. Administrator Austin, in the Blue Book report of June the 14th, 1875, said: "The health of the Colony is very satisfactory." Sir Arthur Kennedy, in his last annual report (24th August, 1876), said: "The general health of the Colony has been good. The health of the whole community has improved." Since those authentic reports were made, the annual death rate of the Colony has declined year by year, the general health of the whole community has continued to improve, and the Registrar General's returns for the current year show the lowest death rate hitherto recorded in Hongkong.
115. Nevertheless, during those very years, 1874, 1875 and 1876, complaints were made of the alarming consequences to the public health from the influx of Chinese into the Colony, and the way they were living so closely packed. One of the principal European merchants, who had obtained some reports (of the years 1874 and 1875) of two Government Officials in support of his views, gravely urged me to pull down a considerable number of Chinese houses and put a stop to any more Chinese coming here, on the ground that their overcrowding and mode of life endangered the health of the Europeans. I was able to point out that, whilst the reports in question foretold immediate outbreaks of typhoid fever, cholera and small-pox amongst this increasing Chinese community, Sir Arthur Kennedy and Mr. Austin had carefully tested those assertions and found them entirely inconsistent with the annual statistics of sickness and mortality.
Chinese Graves.
116. On sanitary grounds, also, I was asked, in 1877, to take a step, which would have done more, perhaps, than anything else to stop the influx of the Chinese.
117. I was told that three days before my arrival in the Colony, and in the interregnum after Sir Arthur Kennedy had left, one of the Government Officials had submitted certain rules respecting Chinese burials and graves, which were about to be carried into effect, and as it was thought prudent to have a sufficient force ready in case of resistance, it was suggested that the Police might be supported, if necessary, by some troops.
118. On calling for the rules, I found that they had been devised apparently for sanitary purposes only; but, with some little knowledge I had gained of the Chinese in Labuan, I could not avoid seeing that the rules did not show much respect for the customs or prejudices of the natives on the