636
260
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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
PAPERS RELATING TO
Book Report of June the 14th 1875, said: "The health of the Colony is very satisfactory." Sir Arthur Kennedy in his last annual report (24th August 1876) said:"The general health of the Colony has been good
The health of the whole community has improved." Since those authentic reports were made the annual death-rate of the Colony has declined year by year, the general health of the whole community has continued to improve, and the Registrar General's returns for the current year show the lowest death-rate hitherto recorded in Hong Kong.
115. Nevertheless, during those very years, 1874, 1875, and 1876, complaints were made of the alarming consequences to the public health from the influx of Chinese into the Colony and the way they were living so closely packed. One of the principal European merchants, who had obtained some reports (of the years 1874 and 1875) of two Government officials in support of his views, gravely urged me to pull down a considerable number of Chinese houses and put a stop to any more Chinese coming here, on the ground that their overcrowding and mode of life endangered the health of the Europeans. I was able to point out that whilst the reports in question foretold immediate outbreaks of typhoid fever, cholera, and small-pox, amongst this increasing Chinese community, Sir Arthur Kennedy and Mr. Austin had carefully tested those assertions and found them entirely inconsistent with the annual statistics of sickness and mortality.
116. On sanitary grounds also, I was asked in 1877 to take a step which would have done more perhaps than anything else to stop the influx of the Chinese.
a
117. I was told that three days before my arrival in the Colony and in the interregnum after Sir Arthur Kennedy had left, one of the Government officials had submitted certain rules respecting Chinese burials and graves which were about to be carried into effect, and, as it was thought prudent to have a sufficient force ready in case of resistance, it was suggested that the police might be supported if necessary by some troops.
118. On calling for the rules I found that they had been devised apparently for sanitary purposes only, but, with some little knowledge I had gained of the Chinese in Labuan, I could not avoid seeing that the rules did not show much respect for the customs or prejudices of the natives on the subject of graves.
119. Further inquiry elicited the fact that those rules had been drawn up by three European gentlemen, that the Chinese community had not been consulted and knew nothing of the sweeping reform that was impending.
120. Having requested the Colonial Secretary to invite 10 or a dozen of the Chinese residents that he considered to be the most intelligent and respectable, to a conference on the subject, I found that the proposed sanitary rules would be far from agreeable to them.
121. Mr. Chun-A Yin, who spoke on behalf of the others, assured me that if the rules were enforced many well-to-do Chinese would leave the Colony and settle elsewhere. He said that though some of the rules were inconsistent with the practice of their religion, there would be no outbreak or outrage as had
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636
260
<<
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
PAPERS RELATING TO
Book Report of June the 14th 1875, said: "The health of the Colony is very satisfactory." Sir Arthur Kennedy in his last annual report (24th August 1876) said:"The general health "of the Colony has been good
The health of the whole "community has improved." Since those authentic reports were made the annual death-rate of the Colony has declined year by year, the general health of the whole community has continued to improve, and the Registrar General's returns for the current year show the lowest death-rate hitherto recorded in Hong Kong.
115. Nevertheless, during those very years, 1874, 1875, and 1876, complaints were made of the alarming consequences to the public health from the influx of Chinese into the Colony and the way they were living so closely packed. One of the principal Euro- pean merchants, who had obtained some reports (of the years 1874 and 1875) of two Government officials in support of his views, gravely urged me to pull down a considerable number of Chinese houses and put a stop to any more Chinese coming here, on the ground that their overcrowding and mode of life endangered the health of the Europeans. I was able to point out that whilst the reports in question foretold immediate outbreaks of typhoid fever, cholera, and small-pox, amongst this increasing Chinese com- munity, Sir Arthur Kennedy and Mr. Austin had carefully tested those assertions and found them entirely inconsistent with the annual statistics of sickness and mortality.
116. On sanitary grounds also, I was asked in 1877 to take a step which would have done more perhaps than anything else to stop the influx of the Chinese.
a
117. I was told that three days before my arrival in the, Colony and in the interregnum after Sir Arthur Kennedy had left, one of the Government officials had submitted certain rules respecting Chinese burials and graves which were about to be carried into effect, and, as it was thought prudent to have a sufficient force ready in case of resistance, it was suggested that the police might be supported if necessary by some troops.
118. On calling for the rules I found that they had been devised apparently for sanitary purposes only, but, with some little know- ledge I had gained of the Chinese in Labuan, I could not avoid seeing that the rules did not show much respect for the customs or prejudices of the natives on the subject of graves.
119. Further inquiry elicited the fact that those rules had been drawn up by three European gentlemen, that the Chinese com- munity had not been consulted and knew nothing of the sweeping reform that was impending.
120. Having requested the Colonial Secretary to invite 10 or a dozen of the Chinese residents that he considered to be the most intelligent and respectable, to a conference on the subject, I found that the proposed sanitary rules would be far from agreeable to them.
121. Mr. Chun-A Yin, who spoke on behalf of the others, assured me that if the rules were enforced many well to-do Chinese would leave the Colony and settle elsewhere. He said that though some of the rules were inconsistent with the practice of their religion, there would be no outbreak or outrage as had
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