633409-1898-Report-of-the-Insanitary-Properties-Commission — Page 1

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE. 30TH JULY. 1898.

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GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.-No. 335.

The following Report of the Insanitary Properties Commission, which was laid before the Legis- Intive Council on the 25th instant, is published.

By Command,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 26th July, 1898.

REPORT.

T. SERCOMBE SMITH,

Acting Colonial Scerctary.

1. We met on the 6th August, 1896, and 12th February, 31st March, 29th April, and 5th June, 1897, and examined the following witnesses:--

Dr. FRANCIS W. CLARK, Medical Officer of Health.

The Honourable F. A. CooPER, Director of Public Works.

Mr. W. DANBY,

Mr. R. K. LEIGH, Architects and Civil Engineers practising in the Colony.

Mr. C. PALMER,

2. In order to report on the details set forth in the Commission, insanitary buildings have been classified as follows:-

(a) Back-to-back houses.

(b) Houses fronting on narrow lanes.

(e) Houses with insufficient open space in the rear; and

(d) Houses abutting on the hill-side.

3. We have personally inspected 19 houses in eleven different streets and lanes in the Colony and we have had before us and carefully considered certain reports and state- ments (Appendices Nos. 7, 9, and 12) compiled for our information by the Honourable FRANCIS A. COOPER, late Director of Public Works, and Dr. FRANCIS W. CLARK, Medical Officer of Health.

4. We regret to have to report that there are many insanitary properties in the Colony, and dwellings which, in their present condition, are unfit for human habitation. The back portions of a number of the houses visited by us are dark, il ventilated, extremely dirty, and in some cases mere dens of filth. The interior of the cubicles or sub-divisions of the living rooms was such that in the great majority of cases their contents could be seen only by the aid of an artificial light.

We wish to call particular attention to the tabulated statement of the Medical Officer of Health (Appendix No. 12) in which he states that in the Health Districts Nos. 5 and 6 out of a total of 3,095 Chinese houses only 565 can be said to be in a fairly good sanitary condition. He further states that the balance 2,530 are insanitary and have been classed into A., B., C., D., and their various defects are shown therein. In the other health districts of the Colony, it appears from his evidence that a similar unsatisfactory state of affairs exists. The Medical Officer of Health in his Annual Report for 1896 shews that 3,095 houses in the said districts represent 8,700 separate dwellings and embrace a population of about seventy-two thousand inhabitants.

5. We are of opinion that there is no need for the resumption of any large proportion of these properties. The alterations and improvements we are about to recommend will, in our opinion, render by far the greater number of them fit for habitation. Resumption is only necessary where properties are so divided and sub-divided that it would be difficult or impossible to get the several owners to agree on any combined plan for the improvement of the dwellings, or where the lots of land are so small and the buildings on them of such dimensions that to make the needful improvements in them as they stand would leave the existing houses more or less useless for all practical purposes. Mr. LEIGH, in his evidence, calls attention to such properties in Hillier Street, &c. Should resumption become necessary in any of the cases indicated, the areas affected will probably be small, and the expenditure required could, no doubt, be easily met out of ordinary revenue. have to recommend that the Ordinance enabling the Government to resume insanitary properties should be amended in the sense of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, in force in England so as to allow of deductions being made on account of illegal rents, insanitary conditions, &c., &c. when assessing compensation. Any such resump- tions as may be necessary, and some will be, if the Colony is to be put in a thoroughly sanitary condition, can be carried out so that there will be no need for any extensive removals of the inhabitants, and therefore the question of housing the displaced population

We