185 (7)
without compensation. To quote from the petition of the landowners to His Excellency the Governor regarding the Public Health and Buildings Bill. September 28th, 1902, "No principle is more firmly established in our Constitution "or has oftener been upheld by our Courts than the principle that without compensation a violation of the rights of private property will not be permitted even for the public good," yet we find that this section, retrospective as it is, in its application, has already caused the property owners of Hongkong losses com- puted at several lakhs of dollars.
26. There can be no doubt that if this section of the Ordinance continues to be enforced without compensation, the losses will be still more serious.
to 2592.
27. One of the witnesses. no less an authority than the Building Authority Pagos 2551 himself, admitted that the enforcement of this section in respect of a property ypon which the owner had obtained four-fifths of the purchase price on mortgage, was equivalent to Government confiscation.
28. The mortgagor so far from finding his property enhanced by the costly re-constructions, finds it seriously depreciated in value as tenants invariably demand lower rents in consideration of the available accommo‹lation being reduced. His margin gone, his rents reduced to such an extent as to leave him unable to pay the interest on his mortgage, the unhappy mortgagor, if he be a man of small means, has to relinquish his property at a heavy sacrifice or go into bankruptcy.
of Ha Kam
29. When this circunstance is duly considered in conjunction with the See evidence losses incurred from the concreting and lime washing regulations, there is small Tong, 2413 room for wonder that Chinese property has, as is affirined by several witnesses, to 2430. depreciated 30 to 35 per cent. in value.
"Li Yau Chun,
2431/2457. A. Turner, 2597/2603
30.. The tendency of the Chinese to send their families away from the and others. Colony is becoming more and more marked (vide census returns which shew an actual Chinese population, exclusive of new Kowloon, of 287,583 as against the estimate given in the Report on the Health and Sanitary Condition of the Colony for the year 1905 of 338,873, exclusive of new Kowloon, or a shortage of 51,290 persons).
31. Property in Hongkong until the last two or three years has been one of the favourite investments of the Chinese community and keen competition always existed whenever a property came into the market, but the Public Health - and Buildings Ordinances of 1903 (section 175 thereof in particular) has altered all that.
32. Formerly it was the custom for the vendors when parting with a property to allow ths or ths of the purchase money to remain on mortgage, and the Government would have been wise to encourage a practice which stimulated legitimate enterprise in property, and incidentally brought in much revenue to the Government coffers, but now such transactions usually spell ruin, and are consequently becoming rarer and rared.
33. It is doubtful, apart from the question of equity, whether the enforce- ment of section 175 without compensation is expedient on economic grounds. As a direct result of such enforce nent, Crown lands diminish in value and the assessable value of property decreases.
34. The Public Health and Buildings Ordinance No. 1 of 1903 as originally drafted was (as was pointed out in the influentially signed petition against it) the work of a novice.
35. That the Government recognised this to a certain extent is certain by the fact of its being withdrawn and a redraft of the Ordinance made. This redraft was intended to be fiual but before the ink was dry on it, it was found to be unworkable in many respects and wholesale amendments had to be made.
36. Even in its present form, it is a hasty and ill considered document. It teens with ambiguous regulations and the confusion is made worse by the employment of different phrases and words to express the same meaning. Sub-section 2 of this very section (175) is a case in point.