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Memorandum by Kr E. Osborne.
94
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:-
www.mmm .CO. 537
37
RECORD OFFICE, LONDON OUT PERMISSION OF THE PUBLIC REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHICALLY WITH- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH - NOT TO BE
1. Having been a Member of the Sanitary Board when the
Public Health Ordinance was under discussion I am
familiar with the controversy that took place concern-
ing it, and for the reason that drastic measures seemed
imperative I, with others, agreed in the main with its
provisions.
2. Ten years have intervened. The Ordinance has had
full and fair trial, its provisions have been enforced
at large sacrifice to the Colony's material welfare
and to the discomfort of the Chinese population,
notwithstanding which plague has not disappeared and I
doubt whether it has even diminished to any large
extent.
3. Under these circumstances the time has surely
arrived for a revision of our methods, unless evidence
be forthcoming that the measures legalised by the
Public Health Ordinance have resulted in more good,
than is apparent on the surface.
4. The abolition of cubicles renders it impossible for
a family of small means to live in the Colony or it
drives them to the use of curtains as partitions,
which by reason of their filth are a worse evil than
the old wooden ones.
I suggest a modified form of cubicle be allowed, kade
of pained woodwork and glass (or iron and glass) raised
from the floor and of such height as not to exclude
light and air,
5. The so called limewashing entails expenditure by tenants (for tenants pay in the long run) with no
corresponding good, as the mixture slopped on to the
walls is valueless except to accentuate the surrounding