March 4, 1809.]
subsoil water, is the principal factor in the csu- sation of the low death-rate, the low symotic rate, and the entire absence of deaths from symotic diarrhoea in the Est ward of the Boroughi
The additional plant required to complete the scheme as proposed by your Surveyor would consist in the provision of an electrical dynamo worked by a 12 h.p. gas engine at each pumping station, or if preferred at each storage tank, the former being the more economical method as additional labour would thus be obviated and
less plant would be required. The entire cost of this additional plant of the size requisite to deal, with the quantities of sea water proposed by the Surveyor in his scheme. would. I am in- formed by M. Hermite's English agents, be about £1,500 if erected at the storage tanks, while the working expenses of the scheme would be little if at all increased, and there is no doubt that a considerable proportion of the £60 or £70 now paid annually by the Sanitary Authority for disinfectants o uld be obviated by the use of this liquid.
The electrical current generated by the dynamo is passed for about 24 hours through the sea water and by its action certain powerful oxidising bodies are set free in the liquid and when this is added to sewage matter the whole of its organic constituents, whether solid or in solution. are rapidly dissolved and destroyed (oxi·lised) and the sewage thus rendered inodo
rous and inuocuous.
1894.
|
OHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT,
thousand, the Sanitary Authority use as much as 500,000 gallons of sea-water a day during the summer months, for the purposes of sewer flushing and street watering.
EXTRACT FROM A LECTURE BY THE MEDICAL OFFICEH OF HEALTH,
Hongkong, 19th: april, 1897. only acted as a preservative for foodstuffs, but had Salt was also an important disinfectant. It not
s prejudio al effect or pathogenic bacteria, and one of his pet schemes for the sanitary improve- from the sea was the flushing of all the sewers ment of any city within reasonable distance and the watering of all-streets and lanes with sea water. Perhaps he would live to see that scheme carried out even in Hongkong, for he was convinced it would be a material benefit to the public health. The preservative and an tiseptic qualities of salt had been recognised
from the earliest times.
At the close of the lecture Surgeon-Colonel Evatt, referring to the remark made b Dr Clark as to the. flushing of drains with As water, gave a brief account of the Hermite system, by which free chlorine is liberated from salt water hy passing a current of electricity through it and a valuable disinfecting fluid obtained. >hortly before he left England this system was adopted at Netley, with the result that the rats all left the place and everything was delightfully sweet bay had recently ordered the adoption of the The Governor of Bom.
system at Bombay,
TWO LAND INVES MENT COMPANI >.
Under the above heading a correspondent
sends us some remarks in the form of a com. municated" article, which will be found below; as an expression of individual opinion they would have been more appropriately embodied in the ordinary form of a letter. Jome com. ments upon the article will be found in a leading article in another columa Our correspondent writes:-
183
things are done in the Model Settlement. The Shangbai Land Investment Co. is a progressive Company, as its figures show :-
1896. 189. 1898. 139,448 171.789–201,303
363
3.9.
Rents Commissions Transfer feea...
· Charges ... Repairs Fire Insce. Adverusing
irectors, ete Interest
Profit
676 *88
139,922 172,259 2:02,067
21,24732,099
11,556,
12,729 '13,969
18,822
630
3,200
28,016
879
88
8,200 8,200 15,952 18,092
62,224 53,50. 67,448 77,698 118,732 134;619
Receipts have increased Th.62,000 in three years and it costs the company only Tls. 5, U to obtain this increase, a very different state of things to that shown by the Hongkong Co. On a capital of $2,000,000 the Shanghai Co, mukes $180,825, the Hougkong Co. can make only $191,047, or or 9 per cent., but with a capital of $3,750,000
1-10th over 5 per cent. And Mr. Shewan with gratulations to the management for such a caustic casnistry offers "our cordial con-
Companies are not equal, hongkong sells for pleasing result!"
In the matter of sales of property the two
a profit of $91,4′ 6. Shanghai for a profit of $74,189, but while Hongkong has spent $70,4:9 of its gain in maintaining dividends, Shanghai has used only $19,768; the rest bas wisely been put to reserve. When this source of income cvuses, as couse it must, what is to become of the Hongkong Company? Anyone who looks into the accounts of the two Companies can.see at once that the whole fault lies in the manage- ment of the Hongkong Company, whatever dir. criticism. Shewan may say about there being no room for
The accounts of the two Companies are not Shaughai Laud Investment Co. still seks presented in exactly the same way, as the
to bury, ostrich fashion, the interest it receives from losus ou wortgage, which last year appears to have been Ts. 32,204,4," or equal to 8 per cent. This makes the total revenue of the Shanghai Co. $312,361 and the cost of collecting it is $22,892, or 74, per coul. The total revenue of the Hongkong Co. is $249,412 aud the cost of collecting it $34, 34, or nearl, 14 per cent.
Words fail to express the
The remedy suggested by many for the purification of sewers an 1 the abolition of the nuisance arising from surface gratings is more copious and more systematic flushing with water, and there can be uo que tion that in addition to the cleansing effects of a sudden rush of water along a closed conduit, that water has immense capabilities of absorption of the sewer gases, and where practicable this is un. doubtedly an integral part of the duty of every Sanitary Anthority, althongh to judge from the report of Mr. Mansergh, it cannot be relied upon to abolish the nuisance of surface venti- What's the matter with Mr. Shewan rughow. lators. I cannot, however, disregard the fact
Is he playing for a seat on the Board of the that this flushing is most esential in hot dry Hongkong Laud Investment Co? Well. I dare weather, and it is just at such times that many
say shareholders would not object to him, as he towus are put to great straits to secure a suffi. ciency of water for drinking and domestic pur-improve the present Board he certainly could seems to have ideas of a kind, and if he cannot poses, and when we see great cities competed not help it to do worse than it has done. But to cut off their water supply for more than half
what extraordinary imaginings consume Mr. of every 24 hours, as several did during the Shewan if his expressed utterances are a true drought of last year, it seems hopeless to rely index to his mind! He speaks of the tougkong Bolely upon flushing for the harmlessness of our
Laud Investment Co's report leaving no room sewers, since it is obvious that when most needed for criticism; he says the Company's record for the system im st invariably breaks dowu.
the last few years has been oue of stow and steady progress; and he says the receipts for 1898 are about 6 per cent more than the figures for 1897. Not to mince matters, the ouly word
On 27th Feb. at noon the ordinary yearly of truth in all this bombast is that the Commeeting of shareholders in the Hongkong sad pany's record is slow; it has not been steady, Whampoa Dock Company, Limited, was held at and the receipts are not 6 per cent more than
the offices of the company, No. 14, Praya Ceutral, in 1897; they are only 24 per cent more, while Mr. J. H. Lewis presided and there were also they are 4 per cent less than they were in present the Hon. J. J. Bell-Irving, Messrs. 'N. A. 1896. Is this the pleasing 'result, which allows Siebs, J. S. Van Bureo, C. Beurmann, A. Haupt, Mr. Shewan nothing but to offer cordial con-
E. S. Whealler (Directors) D. Gillies (Chief gratulations and to leave no room for criticism? Manager). T. I. Rose (Secretary, H. Wicking, Rubbish and atter rot! Here are the figures G. de Champeaux. W. Parfitt.J.M. Michael, C.D. taken from the Hongkong Land Investment Cruddook. W. G. Winterboru, J. Thorburn, and Co's own reports, and it is for Mr. Shewan to
H. M. 8. H. ́Esmail. controvert them or correct his statements :—
There is less excuse in this respect for such towns as are contiguous to the sea, and I have very little donbt that in ears to come these towns will value their potable water far too highly to pour it into their closets, and that a separate service of son. water, which can be li d for the pumping, will be u'ilised for all saci
purposes. For a town on the sea coast to pay large sums annually for the careful collection of fresh water from sources uncontaminated by sewage, the still more careful filtering of this water through immense filter beds, which are renewed at frequent intervals, and for its sub. sequent conveyance in closed conduits for several miles, only to discharge it into foul sewere, is to my mind a most strange policy, and I firmly believe that were auy sea coast town to auder- take to supply all water closeted houses, public urinals, &c, with sea water for flushing purposes. it would prove a sound 'financial undertaking, would render the conditition of the sewers and. pari passu, the health of the town, independentof drought or other climatié oonditions, and would relieve many a town of the pressing anxieties inoident upon the occurrence of a water famine
|
Interest ... hents Commissions. "Transfer fees
1896. 1897. 1898. 133,252 100,818 74,047 103,148 127,897 166,717 7,908 9,145 8,499 308 227 149
244 616 288.087 249,412
Charges... 20.880 21,926 23,994 Repairs
8.557 12,690 16,827 Advertising
2x5 418 431 Fire Insce.
3,464 5,869 6,573 Directors, etc.. 10,500 10,500 10,6 0
Profit
58,365
43,686 51,403 200,930 186,684–191,047
Seeing that it is an admitted fact that thr Bowers of this Borough are most inadequately flushed I would urge upon the Sanitary Author- ity of giving the scheme of the Surveyor for the pumping and utilization of sea-water their most earnest 'consideration, for I do not feel justified in recommending the use of such quant- ities of potable water for the par,oses of
Receipts increase $5,000 in three years and it sewer-flushing as are undoubtedly necessary costs the Company $15,000 to obtain this in- to secure the desired result. What this quant crease, so they are really $10,000 (or to be exact ity should be may be gathered from the fe$9,883) worse off than they were three years that at Bournemouth, with a population of
it is at least cheering to turn from this 42,000 ̈and a death rate of only 10.09 per spectacle of Chaterian finanby, to examine how
8.50.
|
meaning of such reckless waste,
HONGK NG AND WHAMPOA DOCK CO., LIMITED.
The SECRETARY read the notice convening the meeting
1 be CHAIRMAN said Gentlemen, the report and statement of accounts having been` in your hands for some days, with your permis. sion, we will take them as read. You were informed at our last half yearly menting that the returns for the opening part of the past six months were not quite so favourable, but later on our business increased largely and I am now pleased to be able to express the opinion that, taken as a whole, the accounts may be considered na very gratifying. The nett sum available for appropriation standa at $487,495.79 and, subject to approval, your directors recommend the following distribution being made, vis :-÷that a dividend for the half year of 8 per cent. and a bonus of 8 per cent., collectively $250,000), ́be paid to shareholders; s bʊnus of $20,000 to contributing shareholders and a bonus of $25,000 to the European st 'ff; that $89,955.94 be written from 'the välus of the 'Kowloon "Dočks, '$25,245,10 from the value of the Cosmopolitan 'dook, '$5,001 from the steam
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