1882-04-04 — Page 4

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.

construction of any houses that are not

In the tabular statements appended to built on what was then supposed to be the the Colonial Surgeon's reports for 1877, luss sanitary principles. The ordinance 1878 and 1879, the total number of cases of was evidently ropied almost entirely from typhoid fever amounts to 8, all being Euro- certain sanitary and Building Acts in force, peans.. Other forms of sickness arising at that time, ingland. I cannot find from sewer gas, defective water-closets, or that the Chinese householders were in any privies in the European style, appear also way consulter on the subject when it was

to be confinul mainly to the Europeans. being framed and passed; and the result Instructions were given by the Secretary is that some of its provisions are entirely of State, in 1867, to have the dry earth unsuited to this colony, and would do more system of conservancy carried out in the härm than good if enforced. Aqiangst gaol and other Government establishments, { other things, clause VIII provides that it The local medical authorities did not, how- shall not be lawful to construct or re-con-ever, approve of the system. Nine years struct any house without'ʼn sufficient water-after the instructions from Downing Street closet or privy. This is copied from an had been duly recorded, a Committee English Act, but the system of water-appointed by my predecessor called his closets and house privies is a system quite attention to the vitiated state of the air and out of place in a tropical colony, and not the stench in the Hongkong Gaol, and an in accordance with the customs of the Chi- further enquiry, I ascertained that the dry nese people.

earth system was not in use, that every morning night-soit was emptied down'a drain in the middle of the gaol yard.

As the gaol stands on the slope of a hill

recess.

are apparently so - healthy ?--4. Their | cipal European merchants, who had ob- | REUTER wires that Mr. Gladstone in reply to a frugal life gives them more inmunity from | tained some reports (of the years 1874,and question in the House of Commons ou the subject disease. They eat only what is necessary 1873) of two Government Officials in sup- of the Rent troubles in Ireland, promised its would to live upon. They eat to live and do not port of his views, gravely urged me to pull consider the matter of arrears of rent during the live to eat. They are clean in their habits, down a considerable number of Chinese and they drink no whisky. I have never houses and put a stop to any more Chinese seen a drunken Chinaman in my life. They coming here, on the ground that their over- consequently obtain a better resisting power crowding and mode of life endangered the to the attack of cliseasti.

health of Europeans. I ivas able to point out that, whilst the reports in question foretold immediate outbreaks of typhoid fever, cholera and small-pox amongst this in. Q. The whole persen, or only the face creasing Chinese community, sir ARTHUR and hands. My observation of the men KESSEDY and Mr. Arstis had carefully is that they keep themselves clean. Their tested those assertions and found them en clothes are clean. As mechanics or work-tirely inconsistent with the annual statistics 'ten they keep themselves very clean. of sickness and mortality.

Q. What is their habit in regard to ablutions? They constantly wash themselves.

"Q. What is the comparative mortality On sanitary grounds, also, I was asked, among the Chinese and the whites of this in 1877, to take a step, which would have city- the death-rated. The death-rate | done more, perhaps, than anything else to is greater among the whites than among stop the influx of the Chinese. the Chinese.

"Q. What is the comparative mortality among adult Chinameh and adult white in the middle of the Town, I was not sur-people--4. The amount is greater with

adult white people.

The Chinese house-bucket Stena, uspe ially when combined with the dry garth system (which in various ways more or less perfect, they have practised for cen- tories, is far better than a system of water-prised to learn that the residents in some insets and house privies. The Chinese of the streets between the gaol and the inhabitants maintaja thatthe attempts now Harbour had the same complaint to make and then made by-successive Surveyor as the Gaol Committer of 1876. fienerals and Colonial Surgeons to force what is called » Western Sanitary Science" them, are not based on sound prin- riples As I stated in the Legislative Council in November 1878, in a discussion

An enquiry ordered in July 1877, also exposed the fact that the majority of the European houses built on the drainage valley of the reservoir that supplied the town with drinking water, had no proper sani.

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THE japanese paper flochi says that of late, ashes and sand have fallen in the neighbourhood of Tokiye, and at different points along the Tokaido. In the prefecture of Saitama, on a very clear day, the sky was suddenly obscured.-Mail. ACCORDING to the Japan fail a very severe shock of cauhquake occurred at Yokohama on Saturday the 11th altimo at a few minutes before foreign settlements and among the natives; but wrought, so far as we have heard, little damage. A brick wall in the swamp Concession was shaken

8 pm. It causal considerable alarm in both

down.

THE Japan Mail states that Mr. Kokubu Hiro- shi, formerly Direc.or of the Sendai Nichi Nichi Shimbun, lately discovered a shell-mound in shida district, distant about eighteen ri from I was told that three days before my sendai, and obtained therefrom some stone axes, arrival in the Colony, and in the inter-earthenware, stone arrow-barbs, mayatama, and regnum after Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY had human and animal bones, etc., which he asserts left, one of the Government Officials had to be the relies of the stone Age.

submitted certain rules respecting Chinese WE-learn from Macao of the death of Mr. P. da "Q. Have they had epidemics in the burials and graves, which were about to Reza, for many years a clerk in the employ of Chinese quarter?--4, No, sir. The small-be carried into effect, and as It was thought Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, & Co, in this Colony, pox has been among them, as it has been

who committed suicide by shooting himself through the head with a revolver yesterday, The among others, but I think there has been

deceased inherited the sum of $25,coo on the less small-pox among them-I mean the

death of his uncle, the late Mr.Camillo de Souza, ratio of population allowed-than with the

and it is supposed that this good fortune turned whites."

his brain. ~ ·

the Chinese passengers who came under

had been vaccinated or inoculated. He said he had rarely seen a Chinese child on whose arm could not be detected three or four of the characteristic marks of

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prudent to have a sufficient force ready in case of resistance, it was suggested that the Police might be supported, if necessary, by some troops.

On calling for the rules, I found that they had been devised apparently for sanitary purposes only; but, with some little know ledge I had gained of the Chinese in La- buan. I could not avoid seeing that the

customs or prejudices of the natives on

Further enquiry elicited the fact that those rules had been drawn up by three European gentlemen; that the Chinese community had not been consulted, and know nothing of the sweeping reform that was impending.

On recently calling the attention of the in which I referred to Ordinance 8 of 1856.tary system, and that the upper sources of Health Officer of Hongkong. Dr. Anans, the leading Chinese residents had said to the water supply were constantly polluted. Į to this evidence, he remarked that it agreed Nothing alarms us more than the No real difficulty was, however, ex- with his own experience, and that he was torernment projects of drainage and moter | perienced in getting the instructions of the often surprised to see how very generally rules did not show much respect for the supply for fushing house sewage. They Serretary of State enforced, and in 1878 a are not consistent with our mode of living.". | Medical Committee, consisting of the Prin-his notice as Medical Emigration Officer, | the subject of graves,

On that occasion, I quoted the views of ripal Naval Officer on the station and a one of the most experienced medical men leading civil practitioner sent me a report, in China. Dr. Depazos of Pékin, in support in which they said :—"The sanitary arran-

system recently introduced works well.”

Whatever the cause may be, the public health of the Colony has undoubtedly improved of late years. Whilst some of the provisions of Ordinance 8 of 1836 may not have done much good, other parts of that ordinance have been enlorced with advantage to the public.

than THREE CLOCK so as not to retard the of the Chinese house bucket system asgements of the gaol are good; the dry earth

- TO SUBSCRIBERS. Arrangements have been made to publish The Honghong Telegraph daily at a poi sub- scribers in the central districts who tu noteegive their copies before FIVE CLOCK will oblige by at once Communicating with the Manager.

At No, la Peddat ~ 33ill at a hack this manting the whe në

The Hongkong

elegraph

upposed to the underground drainage system, whether connected with water- closets or house privies. In his work on The Peases of China contrasted with those of Europe:" he says

Mucir that is recommended at home in the way of ventilation, water supply. and disinfection of privies is rendered in China unnecessary, All the advantages As an illustration of this, I may mention claimed for the dry earth system are gained that an application came before me in here free of expense to the individual or January 1879 from a firm of European public. The industrious and frugal bits Architects, suggesting, that I should allow HONGING. TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 18521

of the Chinese, and even their very poverty, certain houses which were to be built for & thus, work to their advantage (all sanitary Chinese Bank and a Goldsmith's shop to As the questions affecting the Sanitation measures more than repay their cost), for be constructed without kitchens or cooking and Public Health of this Colony are now compels them to utilise all excrementiti-places. As I usually do in such matters. being brought prominently before the pu ous matter. Every particle of every kind I desired to see the opinions of the leading blic both here and at home, it is only fair of manure. besides rags, papers etc., are Chinese on the question before I finally that Governor HENNESSY's actual views collected, and preserved with the greatest decided it; and I venture to draw Your and recommendations on these matters

care. The private privies, which are all Lordship's attention to the sensible views should be widely known, the more especi-out of doors, are visited daily by these these gentlemen expressed. The Acting ally as the statements of Mr. J. M. PRICE

Chinese Secretary's report, dated 1st in his letter to the Colonial Secretary

February, 1879, is as follows: published in the Rejurt printed by order of the House of Commons, and reproduced in last night's China Mail - are, when standing alone, grossly misleading. From the published papers on the subject, we therefore take the following.observations | of His Excellency, addressed to the Earl

of Kaşımırtex, reserving our own comments for a future issue :—

The experiments of sanitation in this Colony are not without interest. The Town of Victoria (containing 100.000 inhabitants) is built on the lower slope of a hill, the top of which is about eighteen hundred feet above the Harlour. „Dr. Haney, the úmi- nent botanist, tells me that when the Colany was established forty years ago, the ravines | behinil "the site of tlle present, town were well filled with Indigenous trees. As the ground was being opened up to make streets, a good deal of fever prevailed: Some of the doctors attributed the difficulty in curing the fever to the existence of the frees. The trees were accordingly cut down. Bar with the removal of the trees, the fever appeared to increase

A sanitarium was built on the Peak, seventeen hundred feet above the sea. But when the doctor who recommended it went away, his successors' condemned if, and the sanitarium was for some years abandoned.

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manure collectors, and so great is the demand foît it, that no payment is made to these scavengers. Foreigners pay a triffe monthly to guarantee respectability, clean liness, and regularity.un the part of the collector," "The healthiness of our freign settlements in China is, in a great measure, owing to the absence of water-closets in the dwelling-houses, which, in Europe, are a fruitful source of disease. Gases, such as sulphuretted and carburetted bydrogen, are not injurious to health when given off in the open air, as when escaping from sewers. China is, par excellence, the country of bad smells, and yet, as we have seen, the people do not seem to suffer from them, . :

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vaccination.

It is quite possible that the comparative freedom of the Chinese in San Francisco from small-pox, to which Dr. STOUT refers, may,' to some extent, be due to the en- lightened action of the Directors of the largest hospital in Hongkong, the Tung. wd Hospital. The Medical Staff of the Government does noi do very much in the way of vaccination, so far as the great mass of the community is concerned. But certain Chinese doctors, who are paid by the Directors of the Tung-wa Hospital, are indefatigable vaccinators. They do not confine their labours to the town of Victoria, but travel through the villages of the Island, vacciriating all newly born children. Since 1878, they have gone beyond the Colony and vaccinated in the neighbouring towns and villages of the Kwangtung Province.

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ACCORDING to the Fiji shimpo a cerisin German Engineer in the service of the Japanese Govern- ment has expended much more money than was appropriated for the work on the Wani mines, which do not yield any return proportionate to the outlay. Hence his dismissal is contemplated. The same paper hints, that Mr. Henry Dyer, of the Imperial College of Engineering will return to Europe about next May.

A MEETING of Justices was held this forenoon at the Magistracy, for the purpose of considering an application from Mariano Fernander, late bar-keeper of the "London Inn," to be permitted to take over the spirit licence of that tavern from John Humby. The Justices present were, Cap-

Having requested the Colonial secretary to invite ten or a dozen of the Chinese re-tain Thomisett, R.N., who presided, and Messrs. sidents that he considered to be the most A Seth and D. R. Crawford. There being no. intelligent and respectable to a conference objection on the part of the police, the permission on the subject, I found that the proposed applied for was granted unanimously. sanitary rules would be far from agrec-| MR. McClellan, Inspector of Junks, charged his able to them.

cook before Captain Themset: this morning with leaving his service without giving, due notice. Complainant said the defendant went out frequently last month without leave. He him in charge. Defendant left on the 13th wained him that if he repeated it he would give

March and did not turn up until yesterday, when he came for his wages. The cook, in his defence, said he had a boil and could not go to his work. The Magistrate inflicted a fine of teh shillings or ten days' imprisonment.

Mr. Chus Avis, who spoke on behalf of the others, assured me that if the rules were enforced. many well-to-do Chinese would leave the colony and settle else where. He said, that though some of the rules were inconsistent with the practices of their religion, there would be no out- break or 'outrage, as had occurred some years before at Macao when Governor Amaral did something of a similar kind, and that there would be no necessity for appealing to force, as they would simply When it is remembered that Hongkonggo away. Amongst other objectionable is constantly being visited by steamers and rules, he pointed to rule 3-single I consulted the leading merchants of ships from places where small-pox exists, graves shall not be more than six feet long the Nim-pak-hong Guild on the subject. and that the rapid commercial movement by two feet wide or less than five fect They are of opinion that in Section VIII of in the Harbour renders the Colony peculiar | deep." Ordinance 8 of 1856 we have a very goodly liable to the introduction of the disease, and useful rule, viz., that in all buildings there can be little doubt that the immunity which are usel or liable to be used, either we have enjoyed for some years past has partly or entirely, as dwelling houses, there been largely due to the efficient vaccina- should be safe cooking places. With tion conducted under the auspices of the reference to the arguments adduced in Tung-wá Hospital. Messrs. WILSON and Salwar's letter, they are of opinion that, although the owner of the premises may wish his tenants or employds to obtain their food from cook shops, there is no certainty that they would always do so: On the contrary, they are

The removal of excreta and the dis- payal of sewer water is the sanitary promises, would be certain to boil, at any rate, blem of the day in Great Britain. There their tea on the premises, and boil water the siwers allow transference of gases and every evening for bathing, the consequence organic molecules from house to house and of which would be that the smoke would place to place; occasionally, by bursting, become a nuisance to the other tenants, and leakage, or absorption, the ground is con- that the lighting of fires in unsafe places tapiinated, and the water supply is con- would endanger the whole house and the stántly in danger of being poisoned and surrounding houses too." contaminated; and all these dangers, are greater from being concealed and being beyond individual control. Fevers and cholera are thus possibly propagated from house to house. In China, we are entirely free from this danger."

THE. Mainichi shimbun publishes a rumour, says the Japan Mail, that the prominent Korgan progressionists Kin Giokkin, and Jo Koban, 're- cently arrived in Japan, have come, among other business, to negotiate a loan for the peninsular kingdom. If this be true, it would seem that comity of nations.". There were, says the same Korea must be contemplating entering "the"

paper, no less than ninety-five tenantless houses That a grave should be at least five feet in the Japanese settlement at Fusan, last month. deep; Mr. Citus-A-vis and the other Chi---During the same month a foreign man-of-war, nese thought a very good provision, and nationality unknown, anchored off Keiki-do. one of them pointed out that it was already Tur. Nichi Nicki thimbun says that in Go the law of the Colony; but that a special kinai, Chugoku, and Kiashis, there are upwards |

rale should be made to compel the Chinese of seven hundred and twenty mines. Increased The Directors are how' building a special inhabitants only to have graves not more operations require more labour, and this not be. small-pox hospital to the south of the Tung-than six feet long and two feet wide, they ing readily forthcoming frout ordinary sources, wa Hospital. All the expenses of this new said, would render it impossible to bury engineers of various steamers have been engaged building, as well as the salaries of the tra- Chinese in single graves in the Colony, as at salarica much exceeding their usual pay, so velling vaccinators, are defrayed by the those graves are, according to Chinese that actually many vessels are prevented from voluntary.subscriptions of the Chinese com-custom, much larger and broader than the incident as proving in a most entisfactory making their trips. Our contemporary regards of opinion that the employés on the pre-munity of Hongkong. This is exclusive of such a rule would allow. They said there way the development of the mineral wealth of

the annual subscriptions, amounting to were Chinamen in Hongkong more than the country.-Japan Mail. about $7,000, they provide amongst them-six feet high; and that Chinese coffins, selves in aid of the endowment funds of the which are constructed according to certain THE Indian Daily News states that attempts: Tung-wa Hospital.

are being made to induce the American Govern- prescribed regulations, for which the people ment to interfere on behalf of the imprisoned Dr. STOUT's statements as to the healthi-have great veneration, are much longer Fenians, who are American citizens; but the ness of the Chinese in San Francisco, and broader than the coffins in use in attempt is not likely to succeed. The Irish cause though living so closely packed may tend Western nations, and that their coffins does not just now commend itself to civilised to explain a discrepancy which Your Lord-could not fit into a grave only six feet long man. It is clear, however, that the Government ship cannot have failed to notice between and two feet wide.

would be right glad to set Mr. Parnell and the the contradictory assertions made occasion- An ordinary Chinese coffin measures six others free-perhaps they may after the Proce ally by some leading Europeans in this feet six inches in length, and at the head, dure Bill passes, but that will not be pleasant to it is two feet seven inches wide. The shut up obstructionists till the remedy has been coffin of a Chinese gentleman who has

forged for obstruction.

received a button or decoration (such as

ABOUT a month ago a huge whale, some sixty some of the Chinese merchants in this feet long, was found dead near the shore at Mirs Bay by the villagers of Tal-long. The waves at Colony have), is enclosed in a case mea. suring seven feet nine inches in length, name Thi-long which signifies "big waves"- this village come in with great force--whence its and at the head, three feet three inches in and carried with them the defunct leviathan of width. Even the coffin of a pauper mea- the deep, to the great joy and profit of the vil sures over six feet in length. The diffe- lagers, who dragged the monster on to the beach rence in the size of Chinese and foreign and appropriated the carcase for oil. The ske- Coffins arises from the fact that the Chinese Icton still remained on the beach up to a short- religion demands that a coffin be scooped time ago, and a gentleman residing in the Colony of the Colony has been good. The a Chinaman in a coffin made of boards of the whale forwarded to hun, Health of the whole community has im- nailed together, would be considered ir MARTIN RANDALL, of Scotland, a seaman un proved." Since those authentic reports religious.

employed was charged this morning before were made, the annual death rate of the In further conferences with these native Captain Thomsett with being drunk and disor Colony has declined year by year, the gentlemen, they clearly explained how all derly on the 3rd instant, and assaulting the police in the execution of their duty, Chinese general health of the whole community has the sanitary, arrangements the Govern- Police Constable 303 said that he found the de "Question. During your residence there continued to improve, and the Registrar ment might require could be secured with-fendant drunk at the house of a European on have you known of any disease, any pesti-General's returns for the current year show out offending their religious customs or Praya Central who called him to take the de lence, originating and spreading in there, the lowest death rate hitherto recorded in turning them out of the Colony.

fendant away. Defendant was making a noise

sir; none. or spreading from there?-Answer. No, Hongkong.

In putting my veto upon the proposed and when the Constable spoke to him outside, Nevertheless, during those very years, rules, I requested that no Government ra- he struck the guardian of law and order in the "9. The Chinese live in Strat quarter 1874 1875, and 1876 complaints weregulations for dealing with the Chinese face, who thereupon blew his whistle for na- very closely, do they not?-A. Quite close-made of the alarming consequences to the should be framed in future without giving together they took the defendant to the station. sistance, when another Constablé came up and ly, sometimes.

public health from the influx of Chinese the leading Chinese residents an oppor- The prisoner was sentenced to a month's im Q. How Is it that you account for the into the Colony, and the way they were tunity of knowing what was proposed to prisonment with hard labour, his only defence fact, that under these circumstances, thy living so closely packed. One of the prin- | be done.

The statement of the native merchants that the Chinese tenants and employés would have to boil water every evening

for bathing purposes, would not surprise Colony, including even one or two Officials, any one really acquainted with the habits and the annual-reports-made-at-the-same of even the poorest Chinese, No doubt,-time, for the information of Parliament, by certain Europeans in Hongkong, as well my predecessor.

With the best possible Intentions, some of my 'medical and sanitary Officers have, as in California and Australia, denounce In Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY's Blue Book re- Governor, Sir Richard Mac-Dons from time to time, been arguing against the Chinese as a dirty race, who never port dated 10th September, 1871, he said: who had some experience of the difference Der Desoros's views and the long es bathe; but the fact is that, in this import-The general health of the Colony has of residing at a high and low level on the tablished practice of the Chinese com- ant sanitary practice, they are

a clean been satisfactory." Mr. ADMINISTRATOR Coast of Africa, tried the sanitarium on the munity, Those Officials advocate an un-people, and, even in the lower classes, set

AUSTIN, in the Blue Book report of Jung Peak again, and with complete success. derground net work of drains and sewers a good example, which our soldiers and the 14th, 1875, said :-- The health of the The Governor's example, has since been in Hongkong, and of compelling the Chi sailors here would do well to follow.

Colony is very satisfactory," Sir ARTHUR followed by European merchants, and nese to build their houses and to modify Dr. Stout, of the state Board of Health KENNEDY, in his last annual report (24th Officials who can afford to build villas their domestic arrangements in accordance of san Francisco, and one of the oldest August, 1876), said:The general health out of the solid trunk of a tree. To bury has recently sent instructions to have the head amongst the hills. On the European chil- with the methods of Western Sanitary physicians in California, refers to this in dren, especially, the good effect of the Seicnee." Ihave pointed out to them that his evidence laid three years ago before change from the hot, stagnant atmosphere the methods of Western Sanitary Science congress. Having stated that he lived in of Victoria Harbour to the fresh breezes of a few years ago, which they are so fond the midst of the Chinese quarter, to which, of the Peak in the summer, is very marked. of quoting, are no longer considered in-no doubt, many of the residents had come

Of late years, the medical dictum about fallible; and that some Public Health from Hongkong, he was asked:- the fever producing quality of trees has also officers in England seem even disposed to been reversed, and the sanitary advantages take a lesson now from the experience of of tree planting established,

The ordinance No. 8 of 1856, "An or- of Dr. DubGION. I have reminded them China and to adopt views similar to those dinance for Buildings and Nuisances," that the only fatal cases of typhiold fover gives the local Government complete con- that occurred in Hongkong since my ar trol over the construction of all buildings rival, have been in European built houses in the colony. This law contains a series with water-closets; and that the Chinese of minute and stringent rules, with ade residents do not appear to suffer from ty- quate penalties, framed to prevent the phoid fever or diptheria.

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being "I was drunk."