March 26, 1904.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
On a division there voted for the motion :--- on. Messrs. Stewart, Dickson, Pollok. Wei❘ Yuk, Ho Kai, Sir Paul Chater and the Harbour Master (7); and against the mo ina the Registrar-General. the Director of Public Works. the Acting Colonial Trea- surer, the Attorney General, the Acting Colo- nial Secretary, the General Officer Commanding and the Officer Administering the Govern-
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H.E. THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT gave his casting vote against the motion and it was therefore lost.
REPLIES TO QUESTIONS. Hou. Mr. POLL CK also moved That it is desirable that the replies to questious which are put by Unofficial Members of Conncil should ba published in the Gazette in addition to the questions themselves. He said -Your Excal- leucy, it has been the practice, I think for som→ time past, that the questions which are put by hou. nu-fficial members should be published in the Coverament Gazette. The
ques tions ar: put in ertenso, sometimes occupying about half ቤ piga of the Government Gazette, and the only information which is vouchsafed as to the answers is some- thing like this:-" The Hon. Colonial secretary replied." Well, Sir, I think that such informa tion is so brief indeed as hardly to be satisfying to the public. Of course I am aware that the auswers to the questions are published in the local Press, but it seems to me, sir, that it would be a good thing as well that they should be published in the Gorern. ment Gazette which is of course the official newspaper published by the Government of this Colony. It seems indeed, one might say, almost absurd that the questions should be published in fu 1 detail and yet that the answers should be of th nature I have stated. I think, sir. that the Government Gazette being the official newspaper of this Colony published under authority should publish not merely the questions as has bon doue for some time past but also the answers which are given to these questions. Then, sir, they will be on record in the official newspaper.
close enquiry to be made into this subject. Now, sir, in the same issue of the Weekly Times there was a letter by a correspondent signing himself "N," which also supports this theory of Mr. Hutchinson's as to leprosy being con- nected with the consumption of fish. The correspondent "N" wri'es as follows:-" There is no place in the world, I have reason to know, where the disease is so common as in Cumana, in the north of Venezuela. Very large quanti-ment (7). ties of fish are occasionally caught there. and fish is the staple food of the inhabitants who are cut off by the mountains from the supply of fresh beef which is available in the central and western districts of the country. Salt is scarce, and fish is to a large extent 'sun- cared. The climate is hot and putrefaction singularly speeding in that region.
My in- formant is a well-knowu explorer aud natura- list. He told me that no house in Cumana is without several leper inmates. This state of things does not exist at all up the valley of the Orinoco, where the staple food is beef, though the population and climate are exactly similar, as are the general habits of the pecple." I may also quote from a letter which appeared from a correspondent of he Hongkong Telegraph in the issue of that paper ou Saturday last as showing that leprosy is connected with the consumption of tainted fish. This corres- pondent says:-"When engag. 1 on outpost duty in one of the Shan states, I brited at a village where there was a collection of various races, and I found that leprosy was very prevalent. Being able to converse with some of the people I soon learned something about the disease. In reply to my questions, I was informed that a black fish, caught in the muddy streams, was salted and covered for three weeks after which it was eaten with tender mangoe leaves. This the inhabitants of the age considered a luxury. In many cases, however, the people partaking of the food were suddenly attacked with fever, they became depressed, and the skin began to bronze iu patches, Subsequently these patches turned white, aud the sufferer lost all sense of feeling, sore formed, and the body presented a loat: some sight." I think these extracts I have read will suffice to show there are at all events some grounds for believing that there may very likely be a connection between the con. sumption of decomposed fish or badly cured fish and leprosy; and I hope, sir, there- fore that this Government will accede to what have asked for in this motion of mine and will order some enquiry to be made into this question by its medical officers. Your Excel lency will see that I have put it in that general way because I feel in a matter of this sort it will be for the Government to state exactly what shape in which the enquiry should be made and I did not wish to limit myself to auy particular form of enquiry. What desire to bring about is that this Council should interest itself in what seems 10 me to be a very important question, considering that we have some 300,000 Chinese in this Colony and having regard to the fact that we have a constant stream of Chinese travelling to and from this Colony, amounting to some two or three millions of persons a year. I hope that one of my unofficial colleagues will second this motion.
Hon. GELSHOM STEWART seconded The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY replied │The answers are recorded in Hansard. The present practice is ccrrect. Therefore Govern- ment must oppose the resolution.
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down. The minute is merely a short statement of what takes place in the house and it would not be right to put the answers in. Everything that is said fully by way of answer to any question appears first of all in the daily papers and subsequently in Hansard; and Hansard, I may say, is a revised version of the Daily Press report; therefore members are not for a single moment in the dark as to the replies to any questions that are put. There- fore there is no reason to do what the hon. member asks to b done.
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Hon. Mr. POLLOCK - Sir, I ask leave to say a few words in reply to what has fallen from the hon. Attorney-General I submit in the first
parallel case, becaus place his case which he put of a Bill is not a every hon. member knows the Bill is published in extenso in the Government Gazette, and not merely the Bill with all marginal notes but also the objects and reasons which bave induced the framer of the Bill to bring it forward. I wou'd submit that as re- gards the publication of the minutes of this Council in the Government Gazette there is ab- solutly no reason. if it is fund necessary in that publication to publish the questions, why the answers should not be published. It seems to me the logical sequence, if it is thought the questions are of sufficient importance to publish them in the Government Gazette, that it is equally important that the answers should be published.
The ATTORNEY GENERAL -The quest'ons form part of the minutes.
Ho. Mr POLLOCK -Bat surely the answers are of equal importance with the question. I- recognise that Hansard is the official publica tion but I think Hansard is not so readily accessible to most people as the Government Gazette is. One knows that the Government Gazette is not only available by those who take it personally in their offices but in such places us the Hongkong Club and probably any other clubs in this Colony; and it is more or less an available and accessible publication; and I think Hansard is not nearly so available as it is.
HE Mr. MAY-I would like to mention one point not mentioned by the Attorney- General and that is that motions and resolutions are exactly in the same category a questions.
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On a division there roted for the motion Hon. Messrs. Stewart, Dickson, P llock, Ho Kai, Wei Yuk and Sir Paul Chater () and against the motion the Harbour Master, the Registrar- General. the Director of Public Works, the Acting Colonial Treasurer, the Attorney- General, the Colonial Secretary and General Officer Commanding (7).
The motion was lost.
you had the answers to questions incor orated in the minutes, by a parity of reasoning you. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL The question as would have to have the speeches in reply to t appears ou the paper will appar to be motions and in reply to resolutions also publish. oicasona le enough, but the fact is the hon.ed in the minutes. It is evident therefore that member has worded his motion in a manner the minutes would be swelled to enormous balk. which is not altogether justifiable. It really The minutes of this Council as drawn rbscures the real question before the house. at present ara fonud on close in. I myself Was misle i by the way investigation into the mitter soma time which the motion had been framed: until almost ago to be absolutely correct; and I see a few minutes ago I was under the impression no special reasons for departing from a method that it was something other than it is. As the which is correct to one which would not be question reads it would appear there is some correct. publication in the Government Gazelle of questions put in this house, the answers to which had been given ut which were not published when the questions were published. What really happens is this. What appears in the Government Gazette is not the publication f the questions put in the house but it is the publication of the minutes of this house, the minutes of the proceedings of the Council; and they are printed in the Government Gazette as they are taken in this house. Now, according The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY-Such to the practice that has been followed in this an enquiry as is indicated involves protracted Council for years past, and according to the bacteriological investigation. Leprosy is not a practice, as I understand it, in all disease that is prevalent in the Colony and it is legislative bodies it is not customary considered that the time of the Government to record in the minutes replies to question Bacteriologist will be better employed in pro-literatim et verbatim. The question has to secuting investigations into diseases which more readily affect the public health of the Colony. As far as present scientific knowledge goes the bacillus leprae does not grow outside the living human body. For these reasons the Government oppose the resolution,
Hon. Sir PAUL CHATER seconded.
H.E. THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT-I might say that I made particular enquiries at the Government Bacteriologist, who is the only man who could conduct such an investigation, and I am satisfied that a great deal more of his time would be given to it than can really be spared by the Colony,
The ATT ENEY-GENERAL-I think hon members must see that this is a question which could not be settled by any such enquiry in this Colony.
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appear in the minutes because it is sent in as a notice of a proceeding about to take place but when the question has been put the mere fact that the question was put by Mr. and Mr.
replies to it is published, but the auswer is not put in; and hon, members will see at once that it wou d be impossible to keep the minutes within anything like reasonable dimensions if the answers were given. Take a parallel case, We find in the minutes the fact noted that, say, the Attorney-General introduced and read for the first time or moved the second reading of a Bill to do so and so. But the detail of the Bill is not given. Again we find in the minutes a note is made of the fact that certain amend ments were made but the objections are not put
the
SCAVENGING AND LIGHTING OF STREETS. Hon. GERSHOM STEWART asked the follow- ing questions:-
1. Will the Government take into consideration the advisability of improving as far as possible the present means of maintaining and scavenging the public roads, as these are often very unsightly from pieces of paper, banana-skins, and chewed sugar cane lying about?
2. In view of the heavy fogs and the difficul
ties and dangers of transport on the Peak roads at night, will the Government take into consideration some scheme for lighting the roads after dark, either by gas, or by strong oil lamps, such as the Kitsou light, and prepare an estimate of the cost?
The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY replio1— 1. Under No. 2 of the conditions of the Scavenging Contract the centegotor must "twice daily sweep and cleanse the surface of all the public and private streets and roads withi their foot-paths, side channels and steps, and also all courts, lanes, alleys, and passages within the City of Victoria." It would not be possible
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