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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 23RD JUNE, 1883.
22. The Inspectors of Nuisances are to notice in the course of their inspections if streets, roads, sidechannels, drains, footpaths or any public thoroughfares are being occupied or obstructed by scaffolding, ladders, stone dressed or in the act of being dressed, bricks, timber, bamboos, or any building plant or material; and unless the person causing such obstruction is able to produce a Government permit for the same they shall immediately procure the removal of the obstruction.
23. The Inspectors of Nuisances are to notice in the course of their inspections if verandahs over Crown land are covered in or enclosed in front, or are being used for storing goods or for cooking purposes, or if they contain urinals or latrines over the public pathways, and if so they shall immediately report the same to the Inspector of Buildings.
24. The Inspectors of Nuisances shall see that no downspouts are extended from the roofs of houses so as to project rain-water on to the road or footpath, thereby damaging the latter; and they shall also see that no house sewage or drainage, offensive or inoffensive, is led out from houses through holes in the walls, and left to drip or flow down the face of such walls on to the footpath, road, or side channel.
25.--It will be their special duty to endeavour to detect and deliver in charge to the nearest police constable persons committing the common offence of depositing night-soil, refuse, or rubbish of any sort into sewer-traps or gulleyholes, or on to any public or private thoroughfare, or on to any vacant ground whether or not the property of the Crown, or into any nullah, or into the harbour, or anywhere other than the places authorised for the purpose.
26.--The Inspectors of Nuisances shall have due care that no road, street, or public thoroughfare or any ground whatsoever, whether or not the property of the Crown, is broken open with a view to the construction of house-drains, connecting with the street sewers, or to the laying or mending of gas or water-pipes, except under the written permit of the Surveyor General.
27.-The Inspectors of Nuisances shall make their inspections accompanied always by their interpreters, and in the event of their own inability or the inability of their interpreters, through sickness or other unavoidable cause, to continue in the execution of their duties, notice of the same shall be immediately given to the Sanitary Inspector.
28. They shall keep in a clear and legible handwriting, in a pocket note-book, a brief record of every day's proceedings, taking care to mention, with due accuracy and precision, the names of the streets and the numbers of the houses visited, the condition of the same in regard to cleanliness, the nature of the nuisances or other infractions of law discovered, the measures taken for the prevention or correction of the same, as also the number of sewer-traps cleansed by the Government Scavenging Contractor, together with any other incident of sanitary interest which should come to the knowledge of the Sanitary Inspector.
29. A clean copy of the day-book containing the past week's proceedings shall be left with the Sanitary Inspector every Saturday at noon, but they shall not fail to report verbally at any hour or upon any day of the week upon any matters requiring immediate action, or concerning which they may desire to obtain the opinion, advice, or instructions of the Sanitary Inspector.
30.-It is arranged that all cases before the Police Court arising from summonses by the Inspectors of Nuisances will be dealt with by the Magistrates at 9 A.M. every day; there will therefore be no occasion for the Inspectors of Nuisances to appear at the Police Court before that hour, and they will return to their inspectional duties immediately after such cases have been disposed of, and their evidence is no longer required by the Magistrates.
31.-As the foregoing Instructions only relate to a limited portion of their duties, the Inspectors of Nuisances will have to use their discretion in dealing with the many unforeseen and exceptional cases which may arise in the daily routine of their duties, and although great energy and firmness are required of them in carrying out the wishes and intentions of the Government in regard to the maintenance of order and cleanliness, especially among the native population, they will bear in mind that it is in all cases desirable that they should exercise their powers with gentleness and moderation, and they should learn carefully to discriminate, in respect of the humbler classes, between those offences of which they wilfully are guilty, and those which are forced upon them by their poverty and by the constructional defects of their houses, for which the landlords are responsible, in which case it will be the latter who must be called upon to remedy the evils according to law.
32. The Inspectors of Nuisances shall, in their house visitations, clearly explain the object of the same to the inmates, carefully detailing what are the reforms required of them in the interest of themselves and their neighbours, and they shall only have recourse to a summons before the Police Magistrates when expostulation has failed.
33.--With reference to the more aggravated cases of out-door abuses and offences against order and cleanliness, the Inspectors of Nuisances shall always deal with the same by giving the offenders in charge to the nearest Police Constable or by summoning them before the Police Magistrates.