Sessional_Paper_1901 — Page 521

Site.

The village.

Houses.

Lodging-houses.

Opium dens.

Public baths.

Ventilation of houses.

Drainage of houses.

Refuse of houses.

Drainage.

Scavenging.

Latrines.

1.7

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Copy of Enclosure No. 7.

Report of a Sanitary Inspection of the Village of Hunghom, made on 30th May, 1901.

The village is situated on the shore of the Harbour near the Kowloon Docks. In front, the foreshore is covered with a number of matsheds massed together without definite order.

These are

for the most part workshops and dwellings of the workers combined. Behind the village there are low

hills.

The site has been in part prepared by cutting back the hills and in part by reclamation. The soil is decomposed granite.

The site in itself is fairly good, but the matsheds massed in confusion on the foreshore without drainage make sanitary cleanliness impossible. The hills in rear of the village are in places not sufficiently far cut back. The removal in time of the hills will be of benefit to the ventilation of the site.

The village comprises 297 houses in well laid out streets which are of good width, with unpaved roadway and concreted footpaths.

The inhabitants are for the most part workers in the Dockyard, and the usual shopkeepers and lodging-house proprietors who provide for the workers. The people are as a body well-to-do.

The houses are some of two and some of three storeys. Some have, but many bave not, a small yard in rear. The basement is on practically the same level as the road. It was tiled on those houses which I visited. The houses are in good order structurally.

These are licensed and under supervision. The regulation space per head, being 30 square feet, is but moderate. Overcrowding should be strictly guarded against.

Overcrowding by day (evening time) appears to occur. The one which I visited was venti- lated in such a way that the closing of a window at the back would practically stop all ventilation. These resorts are a source of danger for the spread of infection. It would be well for the Sanitary Inspector to insist on the window in the rear being always kept open during the day, the time during which overcrowding verurs.

used.

Public baths have been recently opened near the lauding stage. They are, I was told, much

The ventilation of the houses has been sufficiently provided for in the structure of the houses, but its efficiency is considerably lessened by the habits of the people themselves who do much to obstruct it by screens, partitions and curtains.

Drains are provided for carrying off the dirty water from house use. These are efficient, but, in one instance which I saw, the pipe from the upper storey discharged over a grating placed in frout the cooking place in the basement.

Refuse from food, with the dust and rubbish of the houses, is collected in baskets which are each morning emptied into dust carts.

Generally speaking the arrangements of the houses are good, but the small space available for a family leads to evils such as the storage in one small space, used as kitchen and wash-house, of the store of drinking water and the urine jar. There are closets only in very few of the houses, The urine is collected in earthenware pots which are emptied only once a day,

Surface gutters run along either side of the streets. The house-drain pipes empty into these, which are daily brushed and washed. They discharge into sewers. These have man-holes for cleaning, but I was unable to find if they are ventilated.

The same carts which collect the house refuse, collect the street rubbish which is eventually taken away by junks.

There are three latrines of twelve seats each situated on the hilly ground behind the village and one of four seats in the market. These are worked on the pail system. The latrine frame is of iron erected" on a concrete platform with a gutter to lead off urine to a concrete catch-pit outside the latrine. The night-soil is stored in wooden buckets till taken away each day by coolies through the village street to a landing, stage where they are put on board junks to be taken away by a contractor. These wooden pails are, I am told, covered over when passing through the streets, but when stored in a central compartment of the latrine they are uncovered. I saw nine such pails filled in one of the