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I would call attention to the indifferent condition of the markets and the want of baths for the poor, also public laundries. The second want was pointed out to me by the Tung-Wa Committee. The provision of a proper water supply for Kowloon Peninsula is recommended, also for some of the larger villages. (Page 48, par. 5.)
I trust that even should these suggestions be found undesirable or impracticable, my report will show the necessity for strong and complete measures of saritation, and trust that they will be undertaken for the immediate benefit of the public health, without waiting for the necessity to be demon-trated by the irresistible logic of a severe epidemic. (Page 48, par. 7.)
8.--Although Mr. Chadwick's recommendations were written nineteen years ago, and the necessity for "strong and complete measures of sanitation" has been demonstrated by the outbreak of Bubonic Plague, which has claimed some thousands of victims since 1894, the Sanitary Condition of the Colony is so defective and the measures of reform initiated by the local Government have been so inadequate that your Petitioners are compelled to memorialise you direct. Mr. Chadwick further said:
121.-I think that the foregoing facts clearly show that the health of the population is not so good as to mɛ ke it presumptuous to attempt tɔ reform time- honoured abuses; on the contrary: to my mind they prove that reform is urgently required.
9. Mr. Chadwick also recommended the formation of an Improvement Fund, in the following terms :—
180.--To effect larger improvements, which would involve the expenditure of a serious proportion of the year's rent, especially when it is a question of remedying defects in original construction, rather than those arising from defects or misusage, the Government should, on the recommendation of the sanitary authority, carry out the necessary works themselves, paying for the work out of an improvement fund set aside for the purpose, and recovering the expenditure by means of a rate on the property, repaying both principal and interest in, say, 30 years, at the end of which time it would cease. The work would be well and cheaply done, and the annual cost to the landlord would be insignificant.
In this matter nothing has ever been done, and at the meeting of the Hong- kong Sanitary Board on May 30th 1901, Dr. Francis (lark, the Medical Officer of Health, drew attention to this omission. Dr. Clark spoke as follows:-
What the Sanitary Board must do was to importune for these sanitary reforms, which had been pointed out over and over again during these past five and twenty years.
As an illustration of what he meant, he might tell the "Board that Mr. Chadwick, who was sent as Sanitary Commissioner to consider the Sanitary Condition of the Colony, made the following recommendations. He recommended that continuous back alieys should be insisted upon. They had not got these yet in this Colony. He recommended that six hundred cubic feet of air space per head should be required in all rooms sub-divided by cubicles. The present law only required four hundred. He recommended that the ground surfaces of all dwellings should be concreted. This was not required until after the great epidemic of 1894. He recommended the forma- tion of an Improvement Fund to carry out larger sanitary schemes, such as the purchase of insanitary properties and their demolition, and the acquisition of all privately owned public latrines. A similar scheme was recommended by the Board, on the initiation of the Vice-President a year or two years ago. Ile recommended the erection of model dwellings. The Bard had this matter again before them now. He recommended that all roads and drains should be prepared before any building los were sold.
10. Mr. Chadwick, referring to Model Dwellings, recommended :----
182. To demonstrate the advantages which may be derived from good
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