CO129-534-3 Report of Retrenchment Commission 4-5-1931 - 19-2-1932 — Page 130

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SANITARY DEPARTMENT REPORT.

For the work to be done the Commissioners do not

In their

consider that this department is overstaffed.

opinion there are only two methods by which retrenchment

can be effected. Firstly that street cleansing be done

by contract. The Head of the Sanitary Department stated

that this would be much cheaper than the present system

of doing the work departmentally, though he doubted

whether it would be done as efficiently. The risk of

The

this cannot be avoided if savings are to be effected.

2. Secondly the replacement of European Sanitary

Inspectors by Asiatics. This policy has been adopted in

Malaya, and has proved satisfactory. There the only

Europeans are the chief inspectors. It is claimed for

the European that he has greater integrity and is more

reliable. He is however very much more expensive.

Commissioners recommend that the scheme be given a

thorough trial. It might be necessary in the first

instance to obtain through the Malayan authorities a

nucleus of Asiatic inspectors from that country.

30 The Commissioners considered the question of

incinerators and the flushing of streets with sea water.

They were glad to learn from the Head of the Sanitary

Department that the latter is already practiced with the

consequent relief to the water supply. Regarding the former

they regard the capital cost as prohibitive. They would

moreover point out that the evil of dumping refuse at sea

is mild compared with that of discharging sewage direct into

the harbour, without first passing it through a septic tank.

4. They would invite the attention of the Head of the

Sanitary Department to the fact, that limitation of the

number of hawkers involves Government in the cost of

incarceration of those persons, who commit the offence of

hawking without a licenco.

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