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from the south and west, the houses to the north and east of the latrines were closed, being found infected and more than three deaths having occurred in each of them. Mr. RAM made elaborate plans of the City of Victoria showing where the plague existed, and the proportion of houses in each district that were infected.
I have the honour to be,
The Honourable J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,
Sir.
Your most obedient Servant,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
Appendix No. 14 (a).
Pн. B. C. AYRES, Colonial Surgeon.
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EXTRACTS
From the Report of Mr. Osbert Chadwick, on the Sanitary Condition of Hongkong, dated 19th July, 1882. [C.—3387.]
149. The absence of any lane or alley giving access to the backs of the houses, a "defect but too common in Victoria, is a great impediment to improvement in sanitation. It is a principle, almost universally admitted, that drains should not pass under the "houses, but where there are no back alleys this is impossible. The want of a backway "to the house is an almost insuperable obstacle to the introduction of the dry-earth, or "any other improved system of conservancy. For the effective application of such systems, the work of cleansing and removal must be done by persons employed and directed by some public authority. If left to private persons, neither regularity nor thoroughness can be ensured. In the absence of a back entrance, the Government "employees must traverse the whole dwelling, an arrangement to which the Chinese "not unnaturally object, for reasons that will be stated under the head of scavenging.
(C
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150.-In framing regulations as to open spaces, continuous back alleys should be insisted on wherever practicable, and in case of existing buildings every effort should "be made to introduce means of access to the back parts of them. The Chinese like to "retain such alleys as private property, and to close them with gates at night. There "will be no objection to this especially if, following the general tenour of their own "customs, the neighbours appoint some person to be responsible for order and cleanli- "ness in the common alley. The obstruction of the alley by partitions of any sort "should be absolutely prohibited in new houses. Further, to encourage the construction of alleys, a smaller proportion of space might be permitted, when in the form of a 'continuous lane communicating with the public street, than when it takes the form of
enclosed court
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"151. The following are the amounts of open space prescribed by authorities in "England. The Metropolitan Buildings Act (18 & 19 Vic., c. 122, sect. 29) specifies that Every building used or intended to be used as a dwelling house, unless all the rooms can be lighted and ventilated from a street or alley adjoining shall have in the rear or "on the side thereof, an open space exclusively belonging thereto, of the extent at least "of one hundred square feet.'
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