Sessional_Paper_1895 — Page 145

HONGKONG.

REPORT OF THE SANITARY SURVEYOR FOR 1894.

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of

His Excellency the Governor.

141

No. 13

95

1894.

SANITARY BOARD ROOM, HONGKONG, 20th February, 1895.

SIR, I have the honour to submit the following report for the year ending December 31st,

1. Plans for the redrainage of two hundred and fifty-two (252) houses were carried forward from 1893; plans for eight hundred and seventy-eight (878) houses were deposited in 1894, making a total of eleven hundred and thirty (1,130) in hand during the year.

2. A total of five hundred and fifty-five (555) houses have been completed and the plans for eight (8) houses cancelled during the past year, leaving five hundred and sixty-seven (567) still incomplete which are carried forward to 1895.

3. Certificates have been granted under Section 74, Ordinance 24 of 1887, to forty-six (46) houses as having been built in accordance with the provisions of that Ordinance.

4. Tables A and B annexed shew clearly-

Table A.-The plans received and work completed during each quarter of the past year. Table B.-The plans received, work completed and certificates granted since the Public

Health Ordinance came into force.

5. The number of houses (567) carried forward from last year is largely in excess of what it has been in previous years. About one-third of these, however, are new buildings still in course of erection while of the remainder a large proportion are completed except for small repairs.

6. The number of houses certified as having been built in accordance with the provisions of the Public Health Ordinance is only forty-six (46) as compared with two hundred and nineteen (219) in 1893 and four hundred and seventy-five (475) in 1891; the reduction may probably be attributed to the Plague.

7. The drains of five hundred (500) houses were inspected by me last year under a warrant from the President made in accordance with Section 53 of the Public Health Ordinance, and the owners were called upon to reconstruct the drainage arrangements.

8. On the outbreak of Plague in May my services were placed at the disposal of the Board for the purpose of supervising the disinfection and cleansing of all plague houses throughout the Colony. A detailed report of this work has been furnished, but the annexed tables C and D, which were attached to that report, are sent in again now as they have an important bearing on the work done in the redrainage of private premises. The redrainage of a large number of houses has been undertaken by the owners since the occurrence of plague in them.

9. Water-closets have been erected and connected to the house drains by permission of the Board or have been re-connected after the re-modelling of the closets and drainage in the following premises :- Grand Stand, Race Course; Tramway Terminus, Garden Road; Bank House, Garden Road; Nos. 64 and 66, Queen's Road Central; Gas Works, Praya West; Remedios Terrace, Arbuthnot Road; Gleneally, Caine Road; City Hall; and the Hongkong Club.

10. Some notice is called for here of the inaccuracies of deposited plans and of the failure to properly inspect work before calling in the Board's officers. It is but too clear that in the majority of cases no attempt is made before starting the work to see what gradients may be obtained for the drains, and in the flatter parts of the City it is seldom that they can be laid throughout to the gradients indicated on the plan. No notice is given of the change of gradient and it is only ascertained on inspection. It is too a frequent occurrence to find a drain leaking on inspection; occasionally pipes are found to be laid without any hemp in the joints and with cement protruding in the drain through the bottom of the joint. Instances could be quoted where four or five inspections have had to be made of drains before they could be passed. I call attention to these facts as they occasion waste of time, and in the hope that those responsible will exercise inore care in the future.

11. The records which were started in 1888 have been maintained and are complete to date.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

H. MCCALLUM, Esq.,

Secretary, Sanitary Board.

J. ROWLAND Crook, Sanitary Surveyor.