1876), couched in language of extraordinary circumlocution, the effect of which briefly was, that the Chinese, whenever they had any grievance or petition to present, should communicate with the Government through the Registrar General.
How little hold the Government really had on the Chinese population, was shewn by several incidents during this period. In August, 1872, the Executive ordered a small tax to be levied on coolie lodging houses, with a view to bring these, generally overcrowded, places under sanitary surveillance. But small as the fee was, the Chinese at once resisted and the whole community was put to great inconvenience by a general strike of all carrying coolies, kept up for three days. The coolies did not resume work until they were given to understand that, as soon as they returned to their work, the Government would entertain their petition and repeal the tax. Another case in point is the Servants Registration Ordinance (7 of 1866). Efforts were made during Sir A. Kennedy's administration, and especially in August, 1874, to prevent this Ordinance continuing to be a dead letter, but it was found impossible to enforce its provisions. The Chinese managed to evade the law or persisted in disregarding it. The same was the case with the measures taken by the Government to repress public gambling. The Registrar General and the Captain Superintendent of Police, having been appointed special commissioners to see to the suppression of public gambling, caused prosecutions to be instituted (May, 1872) against landlords owning houses in which secret gambling establishments were kept, but the prosecutions broke down and whatever the Government did in the matter proved fruitless. Public gambling continued as before by means of pretended clubs and other arrangements which proved to be entirely beyond the reach of the law.
As regards sanitation, Dr. Dods, in his report for 1872, formulated the theory that fever is most prevalent in Hongkong when the rainfall is below the average and the range of the thermometer is small, and Dr. Ayres added, in 1873, the axiom that the heavier the rainfall, the better is the health of the
