Sessional_Paper_1907 — Page 568

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Members of the Board have been on the Board for 8 years and 6 years respectively. Yet during the whole of this period these Chinese gentlemen have not apparently become aware of the existence of corruption. Is it to be wondered at then that the existence of corruption could not be brought home to subordinates in the Department by the Principal Civil Medical Officer and Medical Officers of Health none of whom understands the Chinese language? There have however been two cases in recent years in which Officers of the Department have been prosecuted in the Courts for corrupt practices.

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Presents.

19. The taking of presents is prohibited under the General Orders for the Civil Service of the Colony and the Colonial Regulations. The evidence of LI LONG LIM regarding hiring of launches is of the vaguest nature and does not justify the inference that the launches were for Sanitary Inspectors bent on pleasure.

Preamble to New Scheme.

20-I have already demonstrated that the contention that the Principal Civil Medical Officer exercises despotic powers while the Board has been reduced to "something less than a Consulting Committee" cannot be sustained in the face of the distinct and specific enact- ments of Ordinance I of 1903 which confers very wide powers upon the Board and leaves in their hands, subject to appeal to the Governor-in-Council in certain cases, the whole control of the Sanitary policy and of the administration of the Sanitary laws.

It is only in minor Departmental details that the Principal Civil Medical Officer has been given power to act. The financing of the Department has always been and is still con- trolled by the Government just as is the finance of any other Department of the Government.

The only legitimate grievance that the Board has in this latter connection is that it has not been as fully consulted as it might have been in connection with the framing of the Annual Estimates, This is a matter that is easily remedied.

The Commissioners are wholly mistaken in supposing that Dr. ATKINSON was largely responsible for the legislation which made the Principal Civil Medical Officer Administrative Head of the Sanitary Department.

This legislation was the outcome of the strongly expressed opinion of Mr. OSBERT CHADWICK and Professor SIMPSON, the experts sent to the Colony in 1902 to advise ou the Sanitary Condition of the Colony, who wrote in the 27th para. of their report dated the 14th of May, 1902, "we are convinced that the Sanitary Department should be adininistered by an officer who should devote the whole of his time to such duties, and who should be ex officio the Chairman of the Board and Head of the Department. This Officer should be a medical man specially trained and skilled in Sanitary affairs and responsible to the Government for the efficient administration of the Department."

Personally I am very strongly of the opinion that the first part of the above recom- mendation is sound. I have had several years experience of the Sanitary Board as formerly constituted and I know that without a responsible Head to control the internal economy of the Sanitary Department, to supervise the work of its officers and maintain proper discipline among them, an efficient and economical administration of the Department is an impossibi- lity. Whether the Administrative Head is a Medical man, an Engineer, or a layman I do not think very much matters.

21.-Paragraph 305.-The Commissioners allege that the legislation by which the Principal Civil Medical Officer was male Administrative Head of the Sanitary Department, was passed without the public being clearly informed as to what the real result of the legislation would be. This statement is not in accordance with facts concerning which the Commissioners might very easily have refreshed their memories.

The Bill which afterwards became Ordinance 23 of 1903 was read a first time on the 19th December, 1903. When it was presented to the Legislative Council it was accom- panied by the usual statement of objects and reasons in which it was clearly set out that