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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND the city of Victória. So long as the present | ing, but also by the house-rent question which state of things exists, were the staff of the I shall deal with presently. Now, to give Director of Public Works and the Medical | a conorete illustration of what I mean, I Officer of Health doubled or trebled they could would draw your attention to the fact that a not deal with the subject effectually or prevent | very large work is just being begun in this colo- the emanation f foul gases which arise from ny namely the reclamation in front of the Na- the sewers all over the city, and which are often val Yard, which will probably involve the impor put down by mà tỷ as bẽing duo 15 an inefficient tation of several hundred fresh coolies into this drainage system, when all the time mueli of it colony from outside. Those numorens coolics is caused by thi deying vegetable mittat will most of them be employed regularly and which has been thrust down the draiù in the not merely by the day, and I must say that it manner above described. I have no hesitationsseins to me most desirable, both from the whatever in Baying that such refuse in conjun: sanitary question and also from the rent quis. otion with ordiniy sewage which gets stopped tion, that lodgings should be built for these by it on its con 3 to the sea. forms a nidus or coolies either somewhere across the Harbour. breeding ground for all kinds of noxions or at least somewhere outside the City limits, germs, and may be the cause in a great measure instead of allowing them to come in and swell of the frequent cases of typhoid fever which our population of over 800 persons per acre in have become ro common of late yours, thẻ in No. 5 Health district. bacillus both of typhoid and pligue munitiplying rapidly in such media.”
That is what Mr. Ladds has to say on the subject of vegetable refuse in our drains.
With such substances as night soil and vegetable refuge in our drains it seems hardly a wonder that typhoid is prevalent and that the plague cop! aues amongst us, and, if we cannot put on a sufficient staff of men to guard our drains from these contaminations, it is -sarely worth while to most seriously reconsider the question of providing for the regalar and systematic flushing of them either by pumping up sea-water for the purpose or else by means of small reservoirs filled by certain mountain streams which at present ruâ ́to waste.
I should like next to say just a few words apon the subject of house-to-house visitation.
It seems to me that, in order that such a procedure should attains its objects, namely, the discovery of the sick persons in the houses, it is necessary that a really large staff of searchers should be put on and that they should be allowed by law to commence work at an earlier hour than 8 o'clock in the morning and I would suggest that the present time, before the plague has taken a good jhold, is just the period when the
most strenuous efforts should be made.
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The Hongkong Governmout could, I imagine, obtain a sufficient return on their money by charging a moderate rent.
A cheap and regular ferry service should be established in conjunction with the erection of those buildings for coolies, so as to make the scheme complete.
I have now dealt with a few paints which have struck me as especially worthy of consider- ations from the point of view of suppressing the plague. Subsequent speakers will probably be able to throw a more perfect light upon the question than I have done.
THE FOOD SUPPLY OF THE COLONY. A very few words will suffice to deal with the next local problem, namely, the food supply question; because the Government has recently appointed a strong representalive Committee to deal with that matter and, we may hope for some good result from their labours.
I only desire to say upon this question that hope that Mr. Ladds recommendation in his recent report will be carried out, as to encourag- ing the inhabitants of the New Territory by loans or otherwise to breed cattle and swine. The promotion of such a scheme would con siderably assist as not only in peace but also
in time of war.
THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASS ES,
Another question which appears worthy of consideration is whether some stricter Police sn- pervision of infected areas is not required, especi I now come to the last point in my address ally in the early morning. Last year something to you, and that is the Housing of the Working like 500 persons who were dead or dying of plague, Classes question. To my mind this is a most were found in our streets, and in most cases it pressing problem. I am sorry to say that, so was impossible to trace the houses from which far as I can gather, there is a land boom on in they had come, and the result was that the this city and that land boom is being accom houses from which those people had come were panied by an extraordinary increase of rents all not disinfected and remained as breeding grounds over the central part of the city.
I look upon for plague. An efficient patrol in the early such a general rise in renta as nothing short of morning would appear to be the most effective an actual calamity from the point of view of way of dealing with this difficulty. Strict police the poorer classes of this colony, European as supervision along the Praya, in order to prevent well as Chinese. To remedy this evil, so far at persons suffering from plague from being sec. the Chinese are concerned, and the consequens retly removed from this colony without the overcrowding and insanitary conditions which sanitary authorities having any clus as to their it leads up to, I would suggest that, in addition last place of residence, appears also to be very to those measures for dealing with the coolies desirable from the same point of view.
to be employed in the naval yard extension Another matter in connection with the plague which I have already advocated, all coolies who appears to me to be worthy of consideration and are in the employment of Government contrac- that is the question whether it would not be tors should be housed by the Hongkong Go- advisable to erect on the other side of the Har-vernment, either on the unbuilt-on portion of bour a plague removal settlement like those Taipingshan or across the Harbour. which have been instituted in some parts of Iu- dia, that is to say a collection of buildings or mat- sheds into which the residents of a badly in fected plague district could be removed en bloc. I believe, from what I have read about such experiments in India, that such wholesale re- moval of the inhabitants from a badly infected ares has been not unfrequently attended with beneficial results and I understand that it an- swered well when it was tried here in I894.~*
I desire next to draw your attention to the fact that the starting of any new industry in this colony, which is of such a nature as to involve the employment of several hundred soo- lies, tends to increase overcrowding in this already overcrowded city and consequently tends to lower our level of sanitation. I must confess that it seems to me that, before any new in- dustry involving the employment of numerous labourers is sanotioned in this colony, some steps should be taken by the government to see *** In 1890 Parliament adopted the view of the that the fresh coolies who will be required for majority of the Royal Commission, and placed such new industry have some special accommo. in the hands of the metropolitan authority the dation provided for them somewhere outside very powers to which exception had been taken, of thin city. Such a stop cseems to me to cbe and in 1899 Parliament endorsed its previous rendered necessary not merely by those sani-action, and went a step further, by entrusting tary considerations which I am now discuss. ~ the same powers to the sounail. ↑ The polley of
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It will, of course, be objected, as I bave already mentioned, that it is wrong to compete with private enterprise in this way; but would you be surprised to hear that that very same argument was brought before a Royal Commis. sion in England in 1884 and rejected by a majority of the members, and that that very sime argument has been urged before the British Parliament itself and has failed? Let me bag all of you, who have the opportunity of doing so, to read a most interesting and instructive article in the February number of the National Review on the London Housing Problem. I have only time now to give you a few extracts, but I hope that some of you will pursue the study of the question for yourselves. The article in question contains the following comments upon the attitude which the Imperial Parliament has taken up with reference to this question.
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May 6, 1900.
the Legislature seems, therefore, clearl mined, and the duty of giving effect to enforced by Lord Salisbury last year in upon the London Government Bill. Addre the House of Lords, the Prime Minister said
The difficulty of the conditions is that the ordinary economic laws do not come into play. You are yourselves obliged constantly to destroy rast masses of poor men's dwellings, and every effort to provide an adequate substitute has hitherto, I am afraid. been a failure. The Loudon County Council has undertaken part of the duty; but it will not be only on the London County Council that this duty will fall, the duty of providing-I will not say of providing, but of striving to provide adequate lodging for the vast multintdes who inhabit this city. It is one of the principal duties which these munici pal bodies will have to perform.”
Part 1 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 onables any sanitary authority to clear any unhealthy areas, but I would especially draw your attention to the fact that the sanitary authority is obliged by the act to provide accom- modation for at least as many persons of the working classes as may be displaced by such clearance, except that a Secretary of State may, on the application of the Sanitary authority, dispense with such obligation to an extent not exceeding one half of the persons displaced.
It will be seen therefore that under the Aol, any scheme for the improvement of the sanitary condition of an unhealthy area involves the provision, by the authorities, of adequate accom. modation for the tenants displaced or in special cases, as for instance when some accommodation may already be available in the immediate neighbourhood, for at least one half of the per- sons so displaced; and my suggestion therefore that the Government of this colony should provide housing accommodation for a proportion of the teeming mass of our Chinese population is no new idea in sanitary administration, but on the contrary is a natural corollary to the resumption and clearance by the Government of a large insanitary area in Taipingshan.***
I need hardly say that, in advocating, this competition by the Government in the provid ing of lodgings for certain classes of coolies, I am actuated by no animosity against the landlord class. It is very natural, and I re cognize it as perfectly natural, that they should, there being such a great demand for living accommodation in this city in comparison with the supply, charge a high rent for the occups- tion of promises belonging to them.
My point, however, is that matters have now arrived at such a stage that some sleps are necessary to counteract the present tendency for rents still further to increase.
Wher anybody buys up any of the articles of food which are necessary to life to so great an extent as to extravagantly raise the price of such commodity, we speak of a corner in such a necessary of life being created, and such a corner in any species of necessary is universally recognized as a very great evil, as witness the recent appointment by the Government of this colony of a Committee upon the price of food here.
Well, I confess, that it seems to me that house room is almost as much a necessity of life as food, and that a corner in houses is practically as great an evil as a corner in food ; and remember that this corner in houses, which has come about mora or less accidentally, is just as unpleasant for tenants as if it had been brought about by premeditated design.
If you go with me so far and agres with ma that this corner in houses, this abnorinal' and extraordinary rise in house-rent which has lately developed aud which is threatening to still further develop in the near further, unless some timely steps are taken to counteract it, is an evil, then surely it is perfectly legitimate for us (and we do no wrong to the landlords) to look round for some means of remedying the evil.
And what more natural r mody can suggest itself to us than a similar one to that which has commended itself to the wisdom and intelligence of the Imperial Parliament and which has been sanctioned by the Legislature of the mother country?
1:|:ཀ མ ཀ 1:ཀ That there exists a general feeling, amongst thoughtful msu. that sathing must be lone is, I think, sufficiently uvidenced by a most 'remarkabla doâtiment which has recently some
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