I need hardly say that the Ordinance was passed at the instance of the Officer Commanding the Troops here many years ago. It had been devised for what was called the protection of the soldiers and sailors. Now, in looking to the result of the changes I felt it my duty to make, I recently asked for a return from the Military Authorities showing the number of soldiers suffering from contagious diseases during the four years past; that is during the time that the reforms which I felt it necessary to introduce had been in operation. Here are the figures which have been furnished to the Colonial Secretary by the Military Authorities on the 23rd of January last. In 1878 the number of soldiers suffering from those diseases amounted to 188, in 1879 to 182, in 1880 to 164, and in 1881 to 186. You therefore see that the abolition of abuses in the management of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance has had a similar effect to that which took place in the more important one of our penal legislation. I will not dwell upon that subject further than to say that in the instructions given by Lord KIMBERLEY to me, important changes are indicated in the existing Ordinance; when that Ordinance has been prepared it will be my duty to submit the draft in the first instance to the Secretary of State, and when it has been sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government, it will be laid before you. I believe I used the words "revolting abuses" in reference to those which I put a stop to. They are in fact the words used by the EARL OF KIMBERLEY himself in referring to some abuses I found existing in Hongkong.
SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS.
Though the Military and Civil returns indicate a steady improvement in the public health, and in the health of the troops, I am nevertheless not satisfied with the sanitation of the Colony. I think that the town of Victoria might be made a model of sanitation, with its position on the slope of a hill, the possibility of obtaining an almost unlimited supply of water for drinking and washing purposes, and, above all, having here a native population who will readily carry out the Chinese custom by which the sewage and refuse is carried out of the town, and used for agricultural purposes. Having a population accustomed to that sensible practice, I have very little doubt this Colony can be made a model of sanitation. I observed the other day that Professor HUXLEY said that some Oriental nations, that we had been in the habit of calling barbarous, were actually more civilised than ourselves in the mode in which they treat sewage. He exposed the danger to public health of the existing European system. It is a subject in fact in which we may have something to learn from the Chinese. In England people are now considering the evils of the under-ground drainage system carrying off excrementitious matter by water supply. Eminent sanitary authorities seem now to be in favour of what is called the Chinese process.
BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES.
There are, no doubt, in this Colony other things necessary for good sanitation. Eighteen months ago I called for information from the Survey Department as to the establishment of baths and wash-houses for the poor, and recently I have been again in communication with the leading Chinese inhabitants of the Colony on the subject, and the result is that a system of private baths which now exists to some extent for Chinese, for which twenty cash, that is, two cents, are paid for a single bath—that system can be extended, and I believe the poor will be able before long to avail themselves of baths and wash-houses where the payment will be extremely moderate, that is, beginning at a scale of one or two cash. These baths and wash houses, with a supply of warm water, can be built without much cost. You will require a certain number of them, and when the plans are completed I will have much pleasure in submitting them to you and asking for the small vote that their cost will entail.
LAND SALES.
I have told you that the item from the sale of Crown lands, which reached in 1881 the sum of $205,680, I was not disposed to treat as one of actual revenue. With respect to that item there has also been some expression of opinion in the Colony. I have seen it stated, that the sale of Crown lands effected in 1881 was a speculative sale, that the Crown sold lands for sums far higher than purchasers were entitled to pay, and that the land so sold would not be applied to practical purposes, but was in reality intended for speculative purposes, that is, for being sold from one person to another, no buildings being erected upon the lots. You are well aware that at one time in the history of this Colony such things occurred. A similar charge appears to have been made as regards the sale of the Crown lands in 1881. This is a matter of public interest, and I have therefore asked the Surveyor General to favour me with a return of the various lots sold in 1881 by the Government, with a statement as to what has been done or is proposed to be done with the land so sold. Now, I find that the first lot sold was inland lot No. 509. It was sold for $3,500 to a Chinese gentleman, and upon that lot he is erecting a number of houses. The next lot sold in 1881 was lot No. 26 at Kowloon, a marine lot. That has been sold to the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Co., a company, as you know, one of the most flourishing of its kind in the East, which is doing an immensity of good in the
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