This paper discusses the attitudes and attempts of the Hong Kong colonial authority towards settlement improvements for the local population based on reports by Osbert Chadwick, a special investigator of the British Colonial Office. In the second half of the 19th Century, the colony of Hong Kong experienced persistent overpopulation coupled with an insanitary built-environment. In those times, the colonial authority tended to ignore the living conditions of the local population. However, the European population eventually became aware of the threat of fire and disease due to the conditions in local settlements, and the authority began to take measures for improving local settlements by directly and simply applying knowledge gained from past experience with housing and sanitary improvement projects for the British working class. However, these attempts proved to be less than functional due to the marked differences between the urban way of life of Britain and the local population of Hong Kong. In 1882, Osbert Chadwick proposed legislative measures that paved the way for a comprehensive improvement program amid strong objections from both Britain and local politicians. To ensure that a firmer development program could be implemented, Chadwick was later commissioned in 1902. The latter program enacted appropriate public health and building regulations for the entire local urban settlement, enhanced the power of sanitary inspectors, and implemented model housing projects on resumption of the lease of areas previously defined as insanitary.
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