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with the law particularly, also, as the government lacked sufficient staff of adequate competence.
This situation became a source of some concern to Dr. Murray, the Colonial Surgeon, who in 1859 reported that:
Hong Kong presents no feature either in climate or position which should make it peculiarly unhealthy. Because of its situation, its natural advantages and its weather, Hong Kong should be the best drained, the best watered, and in every way, the best regulated of towns from a sanitary point of view.... Ordinance No. 8 of 1856 makes it unlawful to construct or reconstruct a house without a sufficient water closet and ashpit to the satisfaction of the Surveyor General. Houses recently built have been allowed to be erected without the slightest regard to any one of these particulars. The fact is there is legal machinery enough to enforce any and every reasonable requirement and to ensure the sanitary condition of the Colony but there exists an unaccountable objection to putting that machinery into action.
In 1860, the Kowloon Peninsula up to Boundary Street came under British sovereignty under the Convention of Peking (Figure 1) and this provided more room for urban growth which the prospering trade of the port had stimulated. Yet more Chinese came from the Mainland to seek employment in Hong Kong and, after a few years, to return to their families. Despite the continual outflow of people, the newcomers arrived in such numbers that by 1865 the population had increased to some 125,500 persons of whom 63% were adult males, which reflected the "frontier" character of the Colony. Demand for accommodation became more acute and, in the continued absence of the adequate enforcement of building regulations and the general lack of satisfactory water supplies and other public utility services, the general sanitary condition of the Colony became the cause of some concern particularly to Dr. Murray who, during his term of office from 1858 to 1872, repeatedly drew attention to the exceedingly unhealthy state of Hong Kong.
McCoy took over as Colonial Surgeon in 1872 but died soon after, and his place was filled by Dr. Phineas Ayres in November 1873. Ayres was outspoken over the state of the Colony's public
1 Quoted in Wellington A. R., Public Health in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1930, p. 13.
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E. G. PRYOR
with the law particularly, also, as the government lacked sufficient staff of adequate competence.
This situation became a source of some concern to Dr. Murray, the Colonial Surgeon, who in 1859 reported that:
Hong Kong presents no feature either in climate or position which should make it peculiarly unhealthy. Because of its situa- tion, its natural advantages and its weather, Hong Kong should be the best drained, the best watered, and in every way, the best regulated of towns from a sanitary point of view.... Ordinance No. 8 of 1856 makes it unlawful to construct or reconstruct a house without a sufficient water closet and ashpit to the satisfaction of the Surveyor General. Houses recently built have been allowed to be erected without the slightest regard to any one of these particulars. The fact is there is legal machinery enough to enforce any and every reasonable require- ment and to ensure the sanitary condition of the Colony but there exists an unaccountable objection to putting that machinery
into action.
In 1860, the Kowloon Peninsula up to Boundary Street came under British sovereignty under the Convention of Peking (Figure 1) and this provided more room for urban growth which the prosper- ing trade of the port had stimulated. Yet more Chinese came from the Mainland to seek employment in Hong Kong and, after a few years, to return to their families. Despite the continual outflow of people, the newcomers arrived in such numbers that by 1865 the population had increased to some 125,500 persons of whom 63% were adult males, which reflected the "frontier" character of the Colony. Demand for accommodation became more acute and, in the con- tinued absence of the adequate enforcement of building regulations and the general lack of satisfactory water supplies and other public utility services, the general sanitary condition of the Colony became the cause of some concern particularly to Dr. Murray who, during his term of office from 1858 to 1872, repeatedly drew attention to the exceedingly unhealthy state of Hong Kong.
McCoy took over as Colonial Surgeon in 1872 but died soon after, and his place was filled by Dr. Phineas Ayres in November 1873. Ayres was outspoken over the state of the Colony's public
1 Quoted in Wellington A. R., Public Health in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1930, p. 13.
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