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Kong's climate is very materially influenced by the direction of the winds prevailing. The North East Monsoon blows from November until April and during this period the weather is dry, cool and invigorating From May until October, the season of the South West Monsoon, the air is highly charged with moisture and the climate is hot, muggy and enervating. July, August and September are marked by atmospheric dis- turbances which now and then culminate in typhoons or cyclones accompanied by blinding sheets of rain.
The mean annual temperature is 72 During the summer months the average temperature is 87 and there is little variation throughout the 24 hours.
Situated on the north side of the Island the City of Victoria gets all the heat and moisture of the South West Monsoon but not the benefit of the breeze which is cut off by the moun- tain behind the town. During the winter months the range of temperature is between 70 and 45 with an average of 66 necessitating for comfort the wearing of warm clothes and the provision of fires in the houses.
The average yearly rain fall is 85.72 inches, As might be expected most of the rain falls in the summer months
Population and its distribution.
With regard to the population ther are no accurate statistical figures, the great movement to and from the Colony and the facility with which the border is erossed preventing accurate checking.
Hong Kong being the principal entrepot for South China and its harbour one of the busiest in the world, every day on an average 4,000 to 5,000 individuals pass to and from China by river steamers or by rail and there are many others who arrive and depart by junks and smaller vessels. During times of political unrest in China many thousands from the mainland sojourn in the Colony some to return to their homes when the conditions are more settled others remaining attracted by the op- portunities offered for employment.
It is estimated that the civil population of the Colony is 1,047,260 of which 588,000 reside in the City of Victoria, 310,000 in the City of Kowloon, over 100,000 on boats in the harbour and the remainder in villages. The Chinese outnumber the rest by fifty to one, the great majority being illiterate working people who reside in Hong Kong because of the facilities offered for employment but who return to their native towns and villages when too ill or too old for labour. Through this exodus the death rate of the Colony is considerably lower than it otherwise would be. The Chinese of the upper classes, many of whom have received a Western education, are mostly engaged in commerce but there ar among them a number of professional men including both lawyers and doctors.
Housing Conditions.--The site on which Victoria stands is a narrow strip of land 4 miles long by 1/5th to 2/5ths of a mile broad lying at the northern foot of the mountain called the Peak and separating it from the sea. The total area of available space is about one square mile or 1/32nd of the whole island. Limited in front by the sea and behind by the steep slopes of the mountain there remains hardly an inch of space
which has not been occupied for one purpose or another. The residential portion where the masses live does not exceed 400 acres. In this space 500,000 in- dividuals find accommodation giving a density of 1,250 per acre.
The conformation of the site with its rapid rise of land near the sea shore led in the early days to the erection of houses on the narrow strip of land near the har- bour and extending a little way up the lower slopes of the mountain the houses being separated by narrow lanes and alleyways. When the population was small and the houses only one and two storeys in height, the situation was not unsatisfactory. As the population grew the houses were heightened to four and even five storeys without corresponding widening of the spaces separating them.
Writing in 1882 when the population was 160,000, the area much the same as it is to-day and the density 400 per acr· Chadwick stated:-"Overcrowding of houses on the ground occurs to a serious extent and so does overcrowding of houses with humans”
By 1901, when Chadwick visited again the density had risen to 700 per acre. In his report he said the housing conditions were rather worse than better than they were in 1882, As regards area per person they were the same but as regards ground area they were worse owing to the large number of lofty houses which had been built during the interval.
Year by year the population continued to increase, immigration being acce- lerated by unrest in China. Victoria was the centre of trade and therefore the centre of attraction. There was no room to build further accommodation and the new comers had to squeeze into the already overcrowded tenements. Rooms were divided into cubicles which to a certain extent provided privacy but which interfered both with lighting and ventilation.
Year by year the Sanitary Department and the Building Authority made efforts to deal with the situation and with a certain amount of success. The task almost Sisyphean in itself was rendered more difficult by paucity of water and by opposition put forward by both property owners and occupiers.
The position to-day is that 500 000 people are being accommodated in an area not exceeding 400 acres in extent where the streets are narrow and the houses four and five storeys high. They are packed together like steerage passengers on an emi- grant ship. In some cases like in the old fashioned ships there are tiers of bunks placed against the walls in others the rooms are divided into cubicles or cabins per- haps eight feet by eight feet and having partitions six feet high. These cabins are not the temporary abodes of persons on a voyage but the more or less permanent homes of the people. There is little or no room for kitchens and latrine accom- modation is limited to pail closets on the roofs of the buildings
It goes without saying that the maintenance of a satisfactory standard of sanita- tion under such conditions is a most difficult problem and one which cannot be solved without the willing co-operation of the people. One thing is certain so long as build- ings are overcrowded and insanitary no amount of external sanitation will give im- munity from disease.
With regard to Kowloon the case is different. This city which is comparative- ly new has been laid out in accordance with modern town planning principles. It has a density of 300 per acre and the water supply is adequate except in periods of great drought.
Influence of traditional beliefs -The traditional beliefs of the Chinese as to the cause of diseases, their means of spread and the factors which effect their courses are so at variance with modern teaching, that there is little chance of promoting voluntary co-operation between them and the authorities in the matter of the preven- tion and control of disease, until they can be brought to understand the true nature of the problems and are conscious of the usefulness of the measures advocated.
The proximity of China and constant intercourse between the two countries makes it harder to overcome prejudices than is the case with Chinese in Malaya and Java. However leaders of opinion in China and leaders of Chinese thought in Hong Kong are making vigorous efforts to promote public health and public welfare along lines which have proved successful in the Occident and the outlook is far more hopeful than was the case a few years ago when Chinese thought on matters of health was unduly swayed by old traditions and theories.
Quarantine impracticable between Hong Kong and the River Ports. So close- ly related are Hong Kong, Canton, Macao, and the River Ports in the matter of trade, and such is the amount of traffic both human and goods which pass between them that, up-to-date it has been found impossible to devise any system of Quarantine which would effectually safeguard one city against the introduction of disease from the other and at the same time, preserve that freedom of commercial relations on which these cities depend for prosperity. It has been deemed best to treat them as forming one unit as suburbs the one of the other and to strive for a working agree- ment between the various health organisations to the end that some means, other than imposing restrictions against a whole port, may be found to prevent the spread of infection.
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