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HONGKONG SANITARY BOARD.
On Thursday afternoon, the 19th inst., a mest- ing of the Hongkong Sanitary Board was held. The President (the Hon. R. D. Ormsby, Director of Public Works) occupied the chair, and there were also present Mr. F. J. Badeley (Acting ( ap- tain Superintendent of Police), Lieut-Col. Ryan, Mr. J. McKie, Dr. Hartigan, Dr. F. H. Clark (Medical Officer of Health), Mr. Fung Wa Chuen, Mr. Chan A Fook, and Mr. G. A. Woodcock (Secretary).
THE BOARD AND INSANITARY PROPERTY,
Minutes by the Hon. the Colonial Secretary and the Medical Officer of Health relative to the powers of the Board in dealing with insanitary property were submitted.
Dr. CLARK said the Government asked the Board to say what additional powers they re- quired. They had over and over again stated what additional powers they required, but seeing that the request had been made to them again, he begged to move:-"That the Board recoinmend the Government to introduce a Public Health Amendment Ordinance on the lines of the Imperial Housing of tho Working Classes Act of 1890, to empower them to deal effectually with insanitary properties. Such Ordinance should also contain & clause amending section 12 of Ordinance 15 of 1894, which deals with the height of buildings in relation to the width of the streets on which they front, by prohibiting the erection of any houses in future of a greater height than one and a half times the width of the street on which they front." With regard to the necessity for some such Ordinance as the Working Classes Act., his minute which was circulated among the members showed that they had practically no power to compel the demolition of insanitary property. They could serve a notice and take proceedings before a Magistrate, but if the property changed hands the whole thing had to be gone through over again. In England, if a notice was served by the Sanitary Authority and the premises were not put into a habitable condition after a certain lapse of time the Sanitary Authority could order the demolition of the premises. The Director of Public Works had asked who was going to bear the expense? In the case of certain property which was not fit to be inha- bited the cost was shared between the Sanitary Authority and the owner. In the case of the removal of buildings erected over archways and which blocked the light and ventilation of other buildings, the owners of the property benefit- ing had to bear the greater part of the cost of their demolition. With regard to that part of the resolution dealing with the height of buildings, that was a mattor which should be constantly pressed upon the Government. He found that in this colony it was possible to even with the new law as to backyards to place upon an acre of building land over 1,500 people. This was not a mere fancy idea, be- cause it had really been proposed in a certain area of the city to house some 1,500 people to the acre of ground. He did not think that that was a condition of things which could exist else. where in the cirilised world. Dr. Clark pro- ceeded to point out the difference between Hongkong and other places in this respect, say- ing that while in this city there were areas with over 800 people to the acre, and that the entire City (including the public gardens and all other open spaces up to the level of Robinson Road and Bowen Roud) had a population of 122 persons to the acre, yet taking 36 the largest towns in Great Britain, there were only three of them with more than 60 persons to the acre, those places being West Ham, London, and Glasgow, and that these three had less than 62 persons to the acre. The most densely crowded wards of the City of Liverpool contained only 160 persons to the acre and a large area at Southampton had been condemned and demolished under the Housing of the Working Classes Act, mainly because it contained as many as 441 persons to the acre, which was considered by the Sanitary Authority as most excessive. The causes of this alarming amount of surface crowding in this Colony were the excessive height of build- ings in relation to the width of the streets, and the small amount of cubic air space required per head. Both of these matters required early attention and should be taken in hand by the Government without further delay.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Mr. McKIE, in supporting, expressed the hope that the recommendation would receive a little more attention from the Government than other recommendations made by the Board during the last few years.
Dr. HARTIGAN said they were unanimous in regard to the necessity for what was proposed, and the only thing was that he hoped the resolution would receive a little more attention from the Government than other recommenda- tions had received.
The PRESIDENT said that nearly everything which had been urged by the Medical Offi. cer of Health and the other gentlemen who had spoken had his fullest sympathy, but there was a great deal of difficulty about the matter. They had over 800 persons an acre, and if they were to reduce the number to 60 persons per acre, it would mean pulling the whole city down, and he did not think that that would be within the range of practical politics. The Goverment had sold land without restric- tions and if the Government stepped in and interfered with buildings already erected, saying that buildings three or four storeys high would not be allowed to remain, compensation would have to be provided. The only experiment made by the Government in this direction was in the Taipingshan distrint, where they pulled down some wretched Chinese houses and had to pay something like 800 thousand dollars as com- pensation for clearing a small area of a few acres.
Oxin-
(July 23, 1900. Lieut. Col. RYAN, in seconding, said he Board in committee to consider the best methods thought that what Dr. Clark had said required of dolhe resolution, he might say that plague. As to the first. no addition from him, except to call attention part of the to the fact that if these regulations were neces- the Chinese ollege of Medicine was found- sary at home in a temperate and comparatively ed in 1887 in connection with the Alice healthy climate, among people whose habits Momorial Hospital, which owed its they know, they were 20 fold more necessary in tence to the munificence of Dr. Ho Kai. a community such as this.
The college itself was started by Drs. Manson and Cantlie with the consent of the managers of the Alice Memorial Hospital, and had been maintained during the past 13 years entirely by the unselfish efforts of the medical men of this ity, who devoted a considerable proportion of their hard-earned leisure to the teaching of the students without fee or reward, and one might* almost say without even the thanks of those who ultimately benefitted by the knowledge instilled into the minds of these students. The college had turned out 12 properly qualified practitioners during the period of its existence, and it was with a feeling of shame that he was compelled to admit that of those twelve men only one had been employed by the Government of this Colony, and that only recently and for the New Territory. Three were, however, in the ser. vice of the Perak Government, who, like Oliver Twist, still asked for more, so that here again they had an illustration of the fact that "a prophet is not without honour save in his own country.” Three were in private practice in Singapore and two in Hongkong. One was House Surgeon to the Nethersole Hospital, one had deserted the healing art for the more exciting arena of po litics (he meant Dr. Sun Yat Son); and one, he re- gretted to say, was dead. His resolution referred to endowment by the Government, but apart alto- gether from this, the Government would do much for the College and still more for the sanitary condition of this Colony if it would give employ⚫ ment to these men, after they had obtained their qualification, in the medical and sanitary work of the Colony, and although he had urged this upon the Government during the past four or five years nothing had yet been done in this direction. Dr. Clark quoted from his annual reports for 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1899, in, which he had made strong recommendations on this subject. In his report for 1895 he wrote:- One of the most deplorable features of this high death-rate among the Chinese is its par tial dependence upon their crass ignorance in regard to the remedial treatment of disease; for not only are they unaware of the use of such a drug, say as quinine in malarial fever, or of the simplest surgical operation for the relief of disease and pain, but such remedies as they do adopt are often of a most prejudical and dan- gerous character. So strongly has this aspect of our death-rate impressed me, that I would urge the Board to represent to His Excellency the Governor the desirability of taking at an early date some active steps in the matter of the education of the Chinese in western medicine, such as the endowment of a College of Medicine for the education of the Chinese inhabitants of this colony. In his report for 1896 he wrote:
Mr. FUNG WAH CHUEN suggested that the matter should be left over for a fortnight, as he should like to consider the different pro- posals, but his suggestion was not adopted, the the motion being carried.
THE PROPOSED SEWAGE FORM FOR THE
PEAK.
A reply was received from the Goverment relative to the sewage farm recommended by the Board for the Peak, and on the motion of Dr. HARTIGAN, seconded by Lient. Col. RYAN, it was resolved that the Government be respect fully asked to give their reasons for refusing the unanimous recommendation of the Board.
THE SITES FOR LATRINES.
On the motion of Dr. CLARK, seconded by Mr. MCKIE, the following mation, of which due notice had been given, was passed:"That the Sanitary Board beg to recommend the Govern ment to publish in the Government Gazette in English and Chinese, in accordance with Or- dinance No. 8 of 1897, the following sites upon which it is intended to erect Public Latrines:- (1.) On the North side of a portion of Crown
Land situated at the corner of Western Street
and Second Street a latrine of 40 seats. (2) On a portion of Crown Land situated at the East End of Hing Wan Street-a latrine of 20 seats. (3.) On a portion of Crown Land in the village of Tai Hang at the corner of Cooper Street and Shepherd Street-a latrine of 40 seats. (4.) On a portion of Crown Land abut ting on Kennedy Street. Yaumati, and lying to the North of Kowloon Inland Lot 1085-a la
trine of 40 seats."
FIGHTING INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
Dr. CLARK proposed the following resolution of which he had given notice:-That, with a view to enabling the Sanitary Board to deal more effectively with outbreaks of infectious disease, the Board beg to recommend the Gov. ernment, (1.) To assist the College of Medicine for Chinese by endowment or otherwise, with a view to the institution of a subordinate me- dical and sanitary staff composed of the diplomates of such College, and (2.) To sanction a scheme for the training, dur. ing non-epidemic times, of a certain number of Police Officers, in such sanitary work as the disinfection of infected premises and the re cognition of cases of small-pox, bubonic plague, &c., with a view to their utilization during periods of epidemic." He said a re- solution of this sort had been approved by a committee of the whole Board and was one of the outcomes of a series of meetings held by the
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The carefu investigation of the actual cause of death in all these cases in which such has not been certified by a registered medical practitioner, could well be conduct- ed by a well-trained licentiate of the Hong- kong College of Medicine attached to the Sanitary Staff, and I would strongly recommend that some such course should be adopted with a view to rendering our mortality statistics less misleading than they are at present." In his report for 1897 he repeated this recom- mendation, and added:-" He would, moreover, prove a useful ally in detecting the commence- ment of any outbreaks of infectious disease among the Chinese." In his report for 1898 he again asked for one or more of these Chinese doctors trained in western medecine, and added :--
.
Many of the hygienic crimes committed by the Chinese in this colony are unquestionably due rather to ignorance than to wilfulness, and the intelligent propogation of our laws by men of their own nationality would, I feel sure, go far towards ameliorating those conditions which at present tend so largely to the discomfort of European colonists and to the detriment of the health of the Chinese themselves." The doctor added that, like the importanste widow, he had again repeated these recommendations in other words in his report for last year.
Mr. CHAN A FOOK, in seconding, said that if the Government could see their way to act upon the recommendation contained in the re-
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