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189. These totals compare with 5,379 male and 2,542 female (7,921 persons) treated in 1938 and 26,902 attendances of male patients and 12,349 of females (39,251 persons) in the same year.
190. The health officer, social hygiene, and his assistants took 13,887 specimens of blood for the Wassermann test and examined 5,289 smears for gonococci.
(F) Dispensaries and health activities in the New Territories.
191. In a Colony like Hong Kong which serves as a great entrepot for the Far East and where more than three quarters of the population is to be found in an industrialized urban area, it is understandable that the rural areas forming the New Territories leased from China in 1898 for a period of ninety-nine years should have been treated as a Cinderella up to comparatively recently.
192. The importance of agricultural development to a Colony so dependent as Hong Kong on imported foodstuffs has, however, received strong emphasis as the result of hostilities in neighbouring territories during the past year or so.
193. Guidance for the population of the New Territories in health matters was obviously of paramount importance.
To this end, early in 1939 Government approved the appointment of three whole-time Chinese sanitary inspectors under the supervision of a senior Chinese health officer and of the addition of three sanitary foremen and nineteen scavenging-coolies to the existing all too small cadre of twenty-eight coolies hitherto working under the two district officers. The role of these sanitary inspectors was largely educational, the object being to explain to the inhabitants of the townships and villages in the New Territories the benefits to be derived from a higher standard of hygiene.
194.
In support of this health propaganda, steps were taken to organize the collection and disposal of household refuse, more particularly in the larger townships of Cheung Chau, Sai Kung, Shek Wu Hui, Tai O, Taipo, Tsun Wan and Un Long, three incinerators being constructed in the first three places. In addition, a number of public salga latrines with fly-traps—similar to those used in large numbers in the West African colonies—were built in crowded areas where there existed an obvious need for such conveniences.
195. A start was made on the improvement of water supplies and the construction of hygienic wells.
196. Markets came in for a good deal of attention and steps were taken to earmark sites for Government markets at Shek Wu Hui, Taipo and Un Long. The system of allowing markets to be controlled by private individuals or guilds for their own profit is not in the interests of the community and it is to be hoped that the day of large, clean, public markets in the New Territories operated for the benefit of the people as a whole is not far off. The change over will not be effected without a certain amount of disturbance of vested interests, but it is believed that this difficulty will be overcome to a considerable extent by means of rural health boards, sanitary committees or similar bodies whose membership will include public-spirited citizens willing to put the common weal before their own private interests.
197. Mention of markets calls to mind the need for the control of foodshops and food factories in the New Territories which are springing up in all directions. The products of these factories are not only brought into the urban area for disposal but are even sent abroad to the Straits Settlements and elsewhere—hence the urgent need for some form of control as that which exists in the urban area proper.
M 46
189. These totals compare with 5,379 male and 2,542 female (7,921 persons) treated in 1938 and 26,902 attendances of male patients and 12,349 of females (39,251 persons) in the same year.
190. The health officer, social hygiene, and his assistants took 13,887 specimens of blood for the Wassermann test and examined 5,289 smears for gonococci.
(F) Dispensaries and health activities in the New Territories.
191. In a Colony like Hong Kong which serves as a great entreport for the Far East and where more than three quarters of the population is to be found in an industrialized urban area, it is understandable that the rural areas forming the New Territories leased from China in 1898 for a period of ninety-nine years should have been treated as a cinderella up to comparatively recently.
192. The importance of agricultural development to a Colony so dependent as Hong Kong on imported foodstuffs has, however, received strong emphasis as the result of hostilities in neighbouring territories during the past year or so.
193. Guidance for the population of the New Territories in health matters was obviously of paramount importance.
To this end, early in 1939 Government approved the appointment of three whole-time Chinese sanitary inspectors under the supervision of a senior Chinese health officer and of the addition of three sanitary foremen and nineteen scavenging- coolies to the existing all too small cadre of twenty-eight coolies hitherto working under the two district officers. The role of these sanitary inspectors was largely educational, the object being to explain to the inhabitants of the townships and villages in the New Territories the benefits to be derived from a higher standard of hygiene.
194.
In support of this health propaganda, steps were taken to organize the collection and disposal of household refuse, more particularly in the larger townships of Cheung Chau, Sai Kung, Shek Wu Hui, Tai O, Taipo, Tsun Wan and Un Long, three incinerators being constructed in the first three places. In addition, a number of public, salga latrines with fly-traps-similar to those used in large numbers in the West African colonies-were built in crowded areas where there existed an obvious need for such conveniences.
195. A start was made on the improvement of water supplies and the construction of hygienic wells.
196. Markets came in for a good deal of attention and steps were taken to earmark sites for Government markets at Shek Wu Hui, Taipo and Un Long. The system of allowing markets to be controlled by private individuals or guilds for their own profit is not in the interests of the community and it is to be hoped that the day of large, clean, public markets in the New Territories operated for the benefit of the people as a whole is not far off. The change over will not be effected without a certain amount of disturbance of vested interests, but it is believed that this difficulty will be overcome to a considerable extent by means of rural health boards, sanitary committees or similar bodies whose membership will include public-spirited citizens willing to put the common weal before their own private interests.
197. Mention of markets calls to mind the need for the control of foodshops and food factories in the New Territories which are springing up in all directions. The products of these factories are not only brought into the urban area for disposal but are even sent abroad to the Straits Settlements and elsewhere-hence the urgent need for some form of control as that which exists in the urban area proper.
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