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The Petitioners omit to mention the fact that the 20 Inspectors were exclusive of a highly trainel Chief Inspector of Naisances obtained from England in the early part of 1899 and who has left recently owing to ill health, or that he is being replaced by an Assistant Medical Officer of Health.

As for the want of training of the Inspectors the Chief Inspector was engaged principally to train them. Application was however made early in this year for three trained Inspectors from home and two more have recently been asked for.

The Petitioners compare the Sanitary Staff here with that of Liverpool.

The Medical Officer of Health we are given to understand based his calcula- tions in some measure on the Sanitary Staff of Newcastle, where he received his training as a Health Officer, which had a population of 228,000 persons in 1839, and a staff of from 14 to 18 Sanitary Inspectors and 1 Chief Inspector in 1891.

The population of Victoria, Kowloon and the Hill District (which are the the districts in which the Sanitary Inspectors work in this Colony) is :---

Victoria, Kowloon,

Hill District,

Total,

:

...

181,918

43,871

2,224

228,013

17. With regard to the statements contained in the letter of the Chamber of Commerce of the 7th of June, (Para. 30 of the Petition), we have only to point to the enclosures B. and C. hereto to show upon what slender foundations those state- ments rest.

18. In conclusion we cannot refrain from expressing our regret that the Peti- tion as drafted is calculated to mislead. Any one who reads it, without local knowledge and unacquainted with the real facts of the case, could not but recive the erroneous impression that in Hongkong sanitation has been at a standstill for the last twenty years and that nothing has been done or attempted to improve the sanitary condition of the Colony. That such an impression would be entirely erroneous is shown by the facts we have adduced. It is unfortunate that the Peti- tion as worded is not more worthy of the good cause-the improved sanitation of Hongkong-it purports to serve. Every resident who has the true welfare of the Colony at heart must be in favour of that cause, and it would indeed be a benighted Government that refused to do all in its power to advance it. But the sanitary improvement of the Colony in the future is not likely to be secured by misrepre- senting its sanitary history in the past.

J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,

Colonial Secretary-

W. CHATHAM, M.L.C.E.,

Acting Director of Public Works and President of the Sanitary Board.

F. H. MAY,

Captain Superintendent of Police and Vice-President of the Sanitary Board,

HONGKONG, 18th July, 1901.