43
In all recent laying out of building lots for the erection of houses care has been taken to provide public lanes and, in this way, the Government has done what was in its power to give effect to the recommendation.
The accompanying statement on Sanitary Legislation shows that the clause in the original draft of the Public Health Ordinance for the provision of back-yards, in which form an endeavour was made to embody Mr. Chadwick's proposal, was so violently opposed by the Un-official Members and the Public generally that it was abandoned,
Taipingshan Resumption.
Any description of the sanitary schemes carried into effect during recent years would be incom- plete without a reference to the large resumption of insanitary properties in the District of Tai-ping-` shan. Here an area of 64 acres of private property was resumed at an outlay of $818,098, the whole of the houses were pulled down and the area was laid out afresh with roads, lanes, sewers, storm-water drains and other necessary works at a cost of $107,875.
A list of Mr. Chadwick's recommendations is prefixed, from which it will be seen that only two items in the shape of works to be initiated by the Government-namely Public Baths and Model Dwellings have not yet been undertaken. The other items not given effect to include the Form- ation of a Fund to carry out large Sanitary schemos; acquisition of Latrines; and Resumptions to admit of forming Continuous Back Alleys. These are practically questions of finance only and enough has been said to show that the Colony has not been in a position to undertake the enormous expenditure involved in these proposals in support of which the opinion of the Honourable T. H. Whiteheal, Member for the Chamber of Commerce in 1892, has been quoted.
In conclusion it will be well to summarize the expenditure on the works mentioned during the past 18 years:-
Waterworks,
a
Drainage and Sewerage Works,
Markets, &c.,
Public Latrines,
Miscellaneous minor Works,
Tai-ping-sban Resumption and Improvements,
2,130,983
1,027,863
533,137
42,479
33,031
925,973
Toral $4,748,522
W. CHATHAM.
13.7.1901.
2949
C. S. O. 1%
Enclosure No. 2.
MEASURES TO GIVE EFFECT TO MR. CHADWICK'S RECOMMENDATIONS OF 1882.
LEGISLATION.
The Public Health Ordinance, 1887.
Under date of the 22nd December, 1886, the then Sanitary Board which consisted of Mr. J. M. Price, Surveyor General, Dr. Ayres, Colonial Surgeon, Mr. Stewart Lockhart, Registrar General, Major T. C. Dempster, Acting Captain Superintendent of Police, Dr. Manson, Mr. A. P. McEwen, Mr. N. J. Ele and Dr. Ho Kai, forwarded to Government the draft of a proposed Public Health Ordinance with Bye-laws to be made thereunder, accompanied by a memorandum by Dr. Ho Kai, protesting against the measure.
This memorandum opens with the following words:"By this Ordinance and the Bye-laws made thereunder landed property in this Colony to the extent of millions of dollars will be sacrificed, vested interests greatly interfered with, and public confidence shaken to its foundations. This Ordinance together with its Bye-laws coutains nearly all the important provisions of a Building Ordinance songht to be introduced last year into the Legislative Council and which, as soon as it was known, created quite a sensation in this Colony,"
He went on to write:" From an economical point of view the idea of sacrificing the millions of square feet at an average price of $6 or $7 per square foot is even more ridiculous. What is this enforced sacrifice for? Simply for the sake of a theory that the Chinese public require all such sanitary improvements to promote their health and welfare. But I challenge the soundness of that theory, I
say the Chinese in general do not require this sacrifice or even desire it.
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