THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
HONGKONG SANITARY BOARD | services rendered by Mr HOOPER on the
ELECTION.
(Daily Press, 18th January.) Contrary to general expectation, there is to be a contest for the two vacant seats on the Sanitary Board. Four gentlemen were nominated on Saturday, and the election, which takes place on Wednesday next, should be the most interesting that has ever occurred in Hongkong, for, by the amendment of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinances, the franchise has been considerably widened, and interest in the choice of representatives of the community is correspondingly heightened. Instead of the mere handful of persons who have hitherto been entitled to vote at these elections, there is now an elec. torate of between 2,000 and 3,000 persons to whom the candidates appeal. This is as it should be. Every member of the com- munity is interested in. the Sanitary administration of the Colony and it is only right that those who represent the community on the Board should be elected on the widest possible basis. We direct public attention to the letter from Mr. SHELTON HOOPER, which is published in another column, pointing out the extent of this extension of the franchise. Parentbe- tically we may express the opinion that the information which is set forth in this letter from Mr. HOOPER is information which ought to have been officially published in the same ample manner by the Government, in the interests of the candidates who are canvas- sing for support, as well as in the interests of those entitled to vote, for we doubt if, for instance, the civil servants or military and naval officers on full pay in the Colony are aware that they may vote as this elec tion. In view of the great extension of the franchise the two hours fixed for the vot- ing would be very inadequate if even a fourth of the persons entitled to vote turned up at the City Hall on Wednesday evening to record their votes. Perhaps, no rush of electors is to be anticipated, though with four candidates in the field, we may con- fidently expect the muster of voters to be greater than at any previous election.
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[January 23, 1909.
take
HENRY HUMPHREYS bas been filled by the Sanitary Commission are scarcely likely to election of Dr. GERARD FITZWILL be forgotten by a grateful public on the we feel sure, will prove aRmost polling day. The three remaining member of the Board. Between candidates are untried · men.
They doctors the margin was small, and have no record of public service in it as a good augury of continued public the Colony which can be called to sup-interest in the affairs of the Board that port their claims for the suffrages of the both Dr. BELILIOS and Mr. PERCY SMITH electors. They must therefore be judged fare resolved to try again when the oppor largely by their professional training and tunity offers.
gain when the oppor local knowledge. Two are medical practi- In connexion with this election we may tioners whose training in bygiene and sanita- appropriately offer a few comments on the tion specially qualify them for seats on a short valedictory speeches delivered by Mr. Sanitary Board. DR. BELILIOS has been long HENRY HUMPHREYS and Mr. SHelton enough in the Colony to be known to most of HOOPER at the last meeting of the Sanitary the electors. Dr. FITZWILLIAMS has but re- Board. The transfer from the Sanitary cently settled here, but he has strong suppor- Board to the Building Authority of all ters in the Hon. Mr. PoLLOCK and the Hon. matters connected with buildings has Mr. SLADE, who signed his nomination paper. certainly deprived the Board of a great deal The fourth candi-late, Mr. PERCY SMITH, is of responsibility and has reduced the volume well known as an auditor and accountant, of its business. Mr. HUMPHREYS says it and doubtless relies more upon his local has "whittled the business of the Board knowledge than upon his professional train- down to practically nothing," and he speaks ing. But the claims of an auditor to represent with the authority of experience. The last the community on the Sanitary Board can- few meetings he had attended he described as not be ignored. In this connection we need- a farce", and for this reason, if for no only refer to the Report of the Sanitary other, he took his leave of the Board with- Commission, which states in paragraph 257: out a single regret. We think these Nearly half a million dollars per annum remarks will afford the taxpayers some "are expended by the Sanitary Board, yet food for thought. The Sanitary. Board in no proper books are kept in the Depart- one of the largest spending departments of "ment of this vast expenditure. There is the Government, In the course of his "neither a journal, nor ledger, and the so- remarks, referring to the revelations of the "called cash book is merely an apology Commission, Mr. HUMPHREYS said: "The "for the name, and for all practical spectacle of $10,000 squandered every month purposes is merely a replica of the during the plague season on an unknown "Bank pass book. The smallest firm and untried disinfectant, of thousands of "in Hongkong could not conduct its dollars paid out every month to unknown "business eatisfactorily with such books, Chinese contractors, without business pre- "and it is probable that many individuals mises and without even a printed form for 'keep much better records of their private their bills, will, I trust, never again be "affairs."
What improvements in this presented to the community. The Sanitary connection have been made since the Board, as a Board, could not be asked to publication of the Report we do not know, share the blame in any way, because prior to but it is very evident that apart from Mr. this state of affairs the Government had PEROY SMITH'S local knowledge, on which, transferred practically the whole of the we presume, he chiefly relies, his profes- executive arrangements to a Sanitary sional training as an accountant and Department composed entirely of Govern auditor should count for something in ment Officials."
We think the ratepayers the election. Now that the candidates would like to know whether the reorganised are officially before the electors, with Sanitary Board affords them any better whom the choice rests, we hope security against such a waste of public the healthy sign of public interest in the Sanitary administration which the Board ever see the bills presented for pay- mojey. Do the members of the Sanitary nomination of four candidates for the two ment? Are they kept regularly informed Vacant seats betokeus, will be generally of the operations of the Department and of manifested on Wednesday next by a rush what expenditure is being incurred? We to the poll.
take it that one of the chief uses of the representatives of the taxpaying community on the Board is to carefully, watch the expend iture, but we do not gather from reports of the Sanitary Board proceedings that the monthly accounts are ever brought to their notice. It seems to us that the practice of the local boards at Home might well be followed here. The bills should go before a Finance Committee, and the Board should be furnished monthly with a list of the accounts recommended for payment-8 list which should not only give the name the peran or firm to whom the money - payable, and the sum due, but should also show what the account is for wh ther for disinfectants, scavenging, or any other pur pose. Were such a system adopted by the Sanitary Board it would afford members the desired means of keeping an eye on the expenditure of the Department and at the same time these lists of accounts would serve to keep them better informed of what is going on than they apparently are now. It seems to us that there is plenty of scope still left for the zeal of the unofficial mem-
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The names of the candidates with those of their proposers and seconders are set forth in another column. We think it will gen- erally be admitted, that Mr. SHELTON HOOPER's claims upon the electorate are such as should ensure his re-election at the head of the poll. During the three years he has served the community
(Daily Press, January 21th...) it has been abundantly clear to all readers
Never in the history of the Colony has so of the Board's proceedings that hepossesses much public interest been manifested in an a grasp of the details of administration election of members to the Sanitary Board such as we think it can confidently be said as. was shown yesterday. The oft repeated no other man in the colony has acquired taunt that there is no public interest in outside the ranks of the bicials actually local affairs in Hongkong is abundantly dis- engaged in the work. His long residence proved by the fact that nearly seven hundred in the Colony, his familiarity with the persons took the trouble to go to the poll, history of sanitary legislation and bis special Of course, this unprecedented manifestation knowledge of the duties of the Sanitary of public interest in the election is due Department, especially as they affect the largely to the extension of the franchise general body of bouseholders, combine to since' t e passing of the ne Public Health give him a pre-eminent title to a seat on and Buildings Ordinance six months ago. the Board. The community owes to Mr.This statement, however, carries the obvious HOOPER, and all other members of the Sanitary Commission, a large debt of gratitude for the valuable service thes rendered in that prolonged inquiry which resulted in the removal of grievances under which owners and occupiers of Chinese property alike had long been groaning. It was this feeling of irrit exasperation would perhaps he the beter word-which prompted Mr. the same time recognition of the valuable bers of the Board and we command the
ation-
HOOPER and Mr. HUMPHREYS to come forward as candidates for election to the Board three years ago and the valuable
inference tht the expression of public opinion has been choked in the pas by a very restricted franchise. We congratulate Mr. SHELTON HOOPER on his triumphant return at the head of the poll which he is fully justibed in regarding as an unmistake- able indication of public approval of the policy be has pursued on the Board since 1906 and we may add] that it expresses at
services rendered by him as a member of the Sanitary Commission. The vacancy created by the regretted retirement of Mr.
of
suggestion we have made to their considera- tion. A Board meeting need not necessarily be the farce that Mr. HUMPHREYS says it is,
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