Sessional_Paper_1901 — Page 527

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public health of the Colony, by providing and maintaining an adequate and suitable system of Public Sanitation and Hygiene, which the revenue is well able to afford. The Imperial Government likewise requires that an adequate and thorough system of sanitation be maintained on account of the health of the troops, naval and military, and the many officers attached to these Services and the Civil Service. The local Government must see that nothing is left undone which can be done, to remedy any defects likely to endanger the public health of the community.

5.- Hitherto the Colonists have been refused and are still denied

any effective voice in Municipal and Sanitary affairs. The Sanitary Board has the privilege to make recommendations and has for years continuously transmitted most useful suggestions to the Colonial Government. The Board, however, has never had and does not possess the power to carry into effect its recommendations. The Board is not permitted to exercise any control whatever over the city's Municipal Revenue, or over its own subordinates. Therefore, the Sanitary Board is not in any way responsible for the overcrowded and the insanitary condition of Hongkong. The Colonial Government has always exercised and continues to enjoy full and complete power in respect of Sanitary affairs and over the city's municipal and all other expenditure. Consequently the Colonial Government is in every respect wholly and solely responsible for the insanitary condition of longkong.

6.—The late Dr. Ph. B C. Ayres, C.M.G., Colonial Surgeon, in his Annual Report for the Year 1873, said:-

But that this type of disease (resembling typhus or typhoid fever) is gradually assuming a severer form and steadily and surely increasing in Hong- kong there is no doubt, as is shown on the inspection of the Tables of previous Annual Reports; this most decidedly indicates a necessity of improvement in the drainage of the town and of regulations concerning the sanitary conditions of the houses of the lower classes whose filthy habits are well known, or in future years these plagues will be endemic in the Colony, and probably end in an epidemic of unenviable renown.

To accentuate Dr. Ayres' prediction his concluding words are printed in italics. The "epidemic of unenviable renown" has been with us since 1894 in the form of Bubonic Plague, and appears likely to rage annually for an indefinite period unless the present insanitary condition of the Colony is thoroughly reformed.

7-In 1881 the Colony at considerable expense obtained the appointment of Mr. Osbert Chadwick, as special Sanitary Commissioner, who arrived from England to inquire into the sanitation of Hongkong. In his report (dated Nov. 1882) Mr. Chadwick made many valuable recommendations, with the conviction that they would be at once adopted, and it is with great regret your Petitioners have to point out that, with a few exceptions, the whole of his recommendations have been ignored, although since his visit the continued existence of the insanitary evils in the Colony has been repeatedly pointed out by the late Colonial Surgeon and the present Medical Officer of Health. For nineteen years the condition of Hongkong has remained practically as insanitary as when Mr. Chadwick came and reported on it. To prove this your Petitioners humbly submit the following extracts from the said Report :—

The sanitary condition of Hongkong is defective and calls for energetic remedial measures. The death-rate is high, whilst the average age at death is low. (Page 46, par. 16.)

Public latrines are most valuable means of sanitation. They should be acquired by Government, improved, their number increased, and they should be thrown open to the public gratis. In towns having narrow streets, complete scavenging is of the highest importance. (Page 47, par. 10.)