–
- L 8 -
The supervision of the sanitary work in the various villages, in Kowloon City and in Sham Shui Po is done by the Police Inspectors.
The Inspectors in Hongkong island work under the personal direction and supervision of the Medical Officer of Health while those in Kowloon are under the Assistant Medical Officer of Health.
GENERAL SANITARY CONDITION.
The gradual replacement of the old type of Chinese dwellings by new premises erected in accordance with the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903, is effecting a slow but certain improvement in the healthiness of the native quarters, but this has been somewhat discounted during the past year, by an abnormal influx of Chinese refugees from the Canton district which was coincident with the revolutionary movement in South China. It has been estimated that at least twenty thousand people arrived in Hongkong within a period of a few weeks during the months of April and May, from this cause, and although some of these fugitives had no doubt returned to China before the close of the year, yet there is ample evidence that a sufficient number have remained to throw a considerable strain upon the housing accommodation of the Colony; a further influx, estimated at ten thousand, due to similar causes occurred during the month of November. The chief sufferers from this cause would seem to be the Portuguese who are largely employed as clerks, accountants, etc., in both Government and private offices; this section of the community has for some years past occupied dwellings of European type in the neighbourhood of Caine Road, Shelley Street, Mosque Terrace, etc., but they have recently been dispossessed by more wealthy Chinese tenants from Canton. At the same time the poorer classes of refugees have crowded into the native quarters of the City and of Kowloon, with the result that there has no doubt been some amount of overcrowding of a temporary nature. This has been dealt with, where it has been found that premises unfit for habitation—such for instance as basements—have been occupied, or where the overcrowding was excessive, but it has been felt that the conditions were for the time being abnormal, and a rigid enforcement of the overcrowding laws has not been attempted.
There can be little doubt moreover that this influx of refugees has contributed largely to the increase in the number of cases of Plague and to the considerable outbreak of Small-pox which occurred at the latter end of the year.
In connection with anti-plague measures to render houses as far as possible rat-proof 201 ground surfaces in houses have been repaired (324 in 1910) and 3,534 buildings have had rat-runs filled up with cement and broken glass (1,675 in 1910).
Permits for the use of two basements as workshops and one as a kitchen have been issued.