THE HON.
SIR C P. CHATER, C M.0.
THE REV. FR. ROBERT.
W. S. BROWN, Esc.
L N. LEEFE. Eso.
J. Scott HARSTON Esco.
CHAIRMAN.
18
F. MAITLAND Eso,
MANSON'S PROSPECTUS.
The Dairy Farm, Ice and Cold Storage Company, Limited, Hong Kong. plays an important part in providing the necessaries of life in Hong Kong. As already stated it owes its inception to the far-seeing genius and public spirit of Dr. (now Sir) Patrick Manson. A medical practitioner here in the eighties, Dr. Manson strongly urged the necessity for a dairy which could supply the needs, in the way of fresh butter and milk, of the steadily increasing European population. That he devoted much study to the problem and made exhaustive enquiries as to the practicability of the scheme which he had in mind, is amply manifested by the Prospectus which he issued. That Prospectus was as follows:--
From a hygienic point of view the milk supply of a community is second in importance only to its water supply. As regards the latter Hong Kong will shortly be in a satisfactory position, but unfortunately, in consequence of the epidemic amongst the cows which the very inadequate, unreliable and exceed- ingly expensive milk supply has hitherto had to submit to, it seems likely to give out altogether and there is every prospect of a milk famine.
This is a serious matter. serious enough for the general public, but especially so for young children and the sick, with whom milk is the principal and often the only food, and is indeed the staff of life.
It is felt, therefore, that the present is a good opportunity to establish, by means of a public Company with an adequate capital, a Dairy Farm, which, while it returns a fair interest on the capital invested, shall supply a thoroughly reliable article and at such a price that what hitherto has been the luxury of the rich may become, what milk ought to be, one of the principal elements in the food of the poor.
The price of good milk in Hong Kong at present ranges from twenty to twenty-five cents. per bottle of twenty-four ounces. These prices, unless in the case of the rich, are simply prohibitive. A principal object of the proposed Dairy Company will be to reduce the price so as to bring milk within the reach of the poor, say to ten cents. or less per large bottle. A second object will be to secure its purity and remove it from the category of typhoid fever and other disease causes; and a third object to place the concern on a sound financial basis and make it a source of profit to the shareholders.
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