with in Hongkong, to lay the blame on the Governor. Owing partly to the annual philippica of the Colonial Surgeon, who asserted that large numbers of Chinese houses in Hongkong had been rebuilt on plans wanting in all sanitary principles, as they drained mostly into the subsoil, and principally on account of the trenchant representations, regarding the alleged mismanagement of sanitary affairs in Hongkong, made by Deputy Surgeon General McKinnon to the War Office, the Secretary of State sent (June, 1881) Mr. O. Chadwick, C.B., at the expense of the Colony, to inquire into and report to the Colonial Office on the sanitary condition of Hongkong. Apart from the prejudice in favour of the dry earth system which the Governor had, the only branch of sanitation, in which he positively interfered, was the working of the C.D. Ordinance, and in this respect also the Governor's action ran counter to the views of the local sanitary authorities. Sir John appointed (November 12, 1877) a Commission (T. C. Hayllar, W. Keswick, E. J. Eitel) to inquire into the working of Ordinance 19 of 1867. But beyond abolishing the most glaring abuses which had connected themselves with the local system, and bringing together a mass of information as to the local history of this branch of sanitation, the Commission produced no result.
In educational matters, the real good, which Sir John did for the education of the youths of the Colony by a reform of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, escaped public attention almost entirely. As regards the Government Central School, then the most popular educational institution of Hongkong, there appeared (December 1, 1877) a pamphlet questioning the raison d'être of this School. The anonymous author argued that the Government should confine its operations to promoting elementary education, leaving all higher education to be organized on the voluntary principle and to be paid for by those who value it. The pamphlet was believed to express the Governor's views and caused accordingly disquieting apprehensions. The Central School, however, continued as before. What the Governor did for, or against, the School, had practically no effect at all, except that the erection
