M 5
HOUSE CLEANSING.
House building has gone on and the staff has been depleted thus rendering it impossible to maintain a quarterly cleansing. Barely three house cleansings per annum have been possible.
The total numbers of floors cleansed were 65,901 for Hongkong and 32,496 for Kowloon.
LIMEWASHING.
In the early part of the year Mr. Carpmael with the help of Inspector Lamble in the Eastern District tried various methods of doing this work departmentally and on the whole it was done successfully and at the least it gave a much improved standard of limewashing, but owing to the incidence of Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis it was not found possible to carry out these experiments as thoroughly as might have been desired. A good deal of data were however obtained and are being embodied in a scheme which it was decided to prepare in 1919 for future guidance.
MARKETS.
No new markets were opened during the year.
A comparative table of the market rents for the past four years will be found in the report of the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon.
There is an increase in revenue of $900 over the total for 1917.
CONSERVANCY.
The conservancy contract was carried out in a very satisfactory manner.
Complaints were received from time to time from the contractor regarding losses due to the floods and to the disturbed state of the neighbouring country.
SCAVENGING AND REFUSE DISPOSAL.
No change was made in the refuse disposal system.
The cost of scavenging the City of Victoria was $52,769.36 and of Kowloon $14,301.47.
A comparative table of the cost of scavenging for the last three years is appended:
1916 1917 1918 (a) City Scavenging, $51,248.96 $53,175.47 $52,769.36 (b) Kowloon Scavenging, 14,482.19 14,595.14 14,301.47 (c) Refuse Disposal, 22,666.57 29,358.56 27,910.53 Total, $88,397.72 $97,129.17 $94,981.36