degr
|
|
THE HONGKONG. WEEKLY PRESS AND
REPORT OF COLONIAL
· SURGEON.
April 6, 1903.
· The report of the Colon Surgeon (Mr. A. Gibson) for the Government with other annual reportazsvet was adopted, and will be forwarded:
SELECT COMMITTERÄGGUN zen, ah, cena The Select Committees were formally appointed under the now Ordinanos. *~
ETH-LAWS AFFECTING CÁTTLE, ETC. The Board proceeded to revise the Bye-law's concerning the depôts for cattle, sheep,- 'pigs and goats.
The-Pansidant explained that this course made did not inclue certain provisions was necessary as the Bye-laws an originally necessary for the Hunghom depot.
The Bye-laws having been considered ́and approved ad seríatim,
DAMAGES BY DISINFECTION. The PRESIDENT moved “That: the Board appoint a Select Committee consisting of Mr. Fang Wa Chun, Mr. Lau Chu Pak and the President under section 14 (sub-section 2) of Ordinance 1 of 1903, for the purpose of investi gating and deciding all claims for damages by disinfection." The Select Committes, he wald, Governor had had with several prominent was the ontcome of conferences which H.E. the Chinese residents of the Colony, and the object of it was to prevent, if possible, by giving co pensation in cases of damage by disinfection, the habit the Chinese had of dumping dead bodies in the street. Representative Chinese had been appointed who would consider each o'sim
as it occurred when a house was disinfected. inspector of the district, would visit premises Two representatives of the Kai Fong, with the when they were disinfected, and would recom- mend what amount of damages should be given. That recommendation would be sent to the Select Committee, and they would forward it to the Government.
The VICE-PRESIDENT seconded, and the motion was carried.
on hound t
to prove a burden to not end with the emancipation of the negro. nnd a proletariat of drones to The worst of slave labour is not that it pled land. It is superfluous to say. degrades the slave, but that it destroys the these two classes has in the slightest moral sense of the master. And the curse our sympathies; and we are not of the slave still hangs about the West to argue in favour of either. Still, Indies, not only in the debasement of the zithstanding that both classes have by negro, but in a more marked degree in the extreme pretensions succeeded in deterioration of the white man. This putting themselves out of court, the topic detrimental effect clings unfortunately to at issue is an important one in the interests every system of contract labour; and it is of the Empire, so important, in fact, that an instinctive drend of this that has led the its solution must be decided once for all. legislature of the United States to run into History is here repeating itself; and, the the opposite extreme in forbidding the teaching of all history, and of all ages, is introduction of workmen' engaged under the that the nation which from motives of sloth most ordinary agreements, perfectly under- or gain hands over to aliens the conduct of stood by parties and entered into for the its industrial affairs is entering on a most mutual benefit of both and to fill a special dangerous course, and one which, if not and merely temporary want.
The PRESIDENT moved that they be forward- checked, must eventually result in national But there is another and more statesman-ed to the Legislative Council for approval. disaster, if not extinction. One of the like objection to the system of imported
The VICE-PRESIDENr seconded and the mo- main causes, if not the principal one, of the labour. All States that have risen to
tion was agreed to, fall of the Roman Empire was the neglect of greatness have done so by some special home labour and the introduction of aliena aptitude of the people at large, an aptitude to till the soil; the natural result being that that it should be the aim of every statesman vast areas of the richest land in Italy fell to preserve with the most jealous care. The out of cultivation, and became wildernesses English race has more especially won its wherein no man could dwell. Once upon way in the world by the vigour of its mental a time the fertile Campagna of Rome sup- qualities; it has refused to amalgamate ported a numerous and sturdy population, with other races on a lower scale of civilisa- whose prowess led Rome to the conquest of tion, and on the whole has succeeded in the world. To-day the Campagna is a fever-preserving its blood free from the taint of stricken waste inhabited by a few listless intermixture with lower and worn-out shepherds worn out by misery and disease. nations. The effect of the deterioration The degenerate sons of the Empire, ener- sure to be brought about by promiscuous vated by foreign conquest and holding alliances is well exhibited in the Spanish themselves aloof from the aristocracy of and Portugueso colonies. Three centuries labour, sought to make such terms with ago both Spaniards and Portuguese occupied their employers that tillage became an a higher station as colonising nations than impossible industry. Looking only at the England; but their statesmen committed immediate present, and holding his private the fatal mistake of encouraging alliances gain of more concern than the future of with the natives amongst whom they were the State, the land-owner peopled his estates living. The natural effect was not long in with slave labour introduced from abroad. making itself felt, and we have only to look The result was seen in the decay of Roman at the present position of what reinains of virility and the Roman citizen of Rome's the two colonising powers of the sixteenth The PRESIDENT moved That the Board later days had no higher ambition than was century to form a judgment of the necessary recommend the Governor in Council to proclaim centred in his sempiternal cry of panem et result of fostering alliances with natives Manila a port or place in which infections circenses. We need scarcely speak of the of a lower station in the ladder of civilisa diseases prevail, in accordance with Regulation Persian Empire founded by CYRUS and tiou. This is the real objection to the No. 1 of the Quarantine Regulations made by the administered by DARIUS I, and how under encouragement of so-called cheap labour; Governor in Council on the 15th March, 1897, his degenerate successors, when the mauly and looking at the matter in this light ander section 25 of Ordinance No. 28 of 1991." vigour of the native Persians had yielded we can see the instinctive objection felt It had come to his knowledg, that there were to the temptations of luxury and the by our real colonies to any general in-reported as having occurred in Manila, and he cases now of plague, cholera, and smallpox introduction of foreign labour, it fell almost troduction of native labour. Looking at thought it advisable that das precautions without a struggle before the arms of the the matter superficially, and merely with should be taken in the case of ships arriving Macedonians; for modern history and our regard to the momentary and monetary here from Maulla. The cases were not very own past experience in the story of the West aspect of the miter, these prejudices may many, a report by t! e Medical Officer of Health Indies have a similar lesson to tell us. An seem frivolous, and even harmful. Wheu,
one week ago giving 14 cases of plague and · 12 identical cry to that we now hear proceeding however, we look at the affair from a wider deaths, 2 cases of smallpox, and 6 cases of from the mines of Johannesburg pressed on national standpoint we see that the instinct the Government of the day the necessity of is a true one, and fraught with advantage labour to develop the resources of the to the nation at large. islands the native Carib, the planter of those days said, was lazy and “would not work." The fact was that the Carib was a free man; he had probably peculiar ideas on the subject of altering his former mode of life, but in this he was by no means solitary. The real trouble was, of course, that he had to be paid, and it would be vastly cheaper to import slave labour from Africa, when it would be only necessary to provide his food, "and his labour could be compelled. How dearly we have paid for cheap labour, the subsequent history of the islands is a living proof. In like manner have the United States had to pay for the legacy we left them of cheap labour in the Southern States It is true that in the end, and from what seemed merely sentimental ideas, we marcipated the slaves in the West Indies, d it set med to many that we had com- mitted a grave error; but the fact was that had not emancipated the slaves of our own free will, we should eventually have had to do it from mere financial motives, but unfortunately the evils of slavery did
HONGKONG SANITARÝ BOARD,
The first meeting of the newly constituted Sanitary Board was held on the 27th ult. in the Board Room. Present:-Hon. Dr. J. M. Atkinson, Principal Civil Medical Officer (President); Hon. W., Chatham, Director of Acting Captain Superintendent of Police; Mr. Public Works (Vice-President); Captain Lyons, C. McI. Messer, Acting Registrar-General; Colonel Webb, R.A.M.C.; Me ars. E. Osborne, Fang Wa Chan, Lan Chu Pak, A. Rumjahn, and G. A. Woolcock (Secretary). Dr. W. W. Pearse, Acting Medical Ofloor of Health, was in attendance.
WELCOMING TRÉ NEW MEMBERS, Before the business was entered upon, The PRES DEST said-Gentlemen, as the Board is n fully constituted under the new Ordinance, I beg to welcome those who sit on the Board for the first time to day, and I hope our deliberations and decisions will conduce to the improvement of the sanitary condition of this Colony whose interests we have all so much at heart. (Applause).
|
cholera.
MANILA INF, CTED.
Col, WEBB seconded, and the motion was carried.
SELECT COMMITTEE,
The PRESIDENT movel “That the Board delegate to a Select Committee consisting of the President and the Acting Medical Officer of Health fall power to enforce all the provisions of the Bye-laws for the Prevention or Mitiga- Lion of Epidemic, Endemic or Contagious › Disease contained in Schedule B of Ordinance of 1913," The object of the Sel ot Committee was to enable the Board to deal more promptly account of the presence of plague. A similar with any honses that required to be closed on committee Lad existed under the old Ordin anos, and he thought that a co mittes of two would be better than a large committee.
The VICE-PRE-IDENT seconded, and motion was carried.
ME. OSBORNE'S DEPARTURE. The.PRESIDENT Before proceding to the". #gends, gentleman," I feel that some reference should be made to the services of one of the members of the old Beard who is shortly lonving the Colony for 12 months: I refer to Mr. Osborne, who, I understand, lesves to mor He had been for over five years the old Board, and I with me that his practical thorough knowledge of local stood "us" in "good" i
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.