185 (276)
2597.9
Q.-Have you got any cases now, pending under this section?
A. Yes, a number.
Q. And it runs into a lot of money?
A. Yes, a lot of money.
Q.-Could you name one or two?
A. Yes, those houses of yours, 1104 I think it is.
Q.-Inland Lot 1103 ?
A. Yes. There are 22 houses there.
Q.-There were finished just before the new Ordinance ?
A.—There were finished just before the new Ordinance of 1903, in 1902,-in the end of 1902.
Mr. Shelton Hooper.-And did you get the certificates from the Building Authority and the Sanitary Board?
A.-Oh, we must have got them.
Mr. Humphreys.--Now this section, Mr. Turner, the one that has cost the landlords of Hongkong so much money, was in the old Ordinance of 1899, was it not?
A. In 1899, yes.
Q. But in that Ordinance also were certain other clauses in regard to buildings here- after to be erected, which have been deleted from the present Ordinance?
A. Yes.
Q.—Well, what to your mind is the effect of these deletions?
It then
A. In 1899, in existing houses, you had to open up this space in the rear. went on to another section to say in building a new house, if it was over 40 feet in depth, you had to have an eight foot yard. Then it goes on to another section, and says that a block of owners could instead of having yards have a lane running along the back of the houses. If the houses are 40 feet deep, a lane of six feet is sufficient, and that was an inducement to owners to provide lanes instead of yards. If you built a house with a lane, the Government would accept a less space behind than if you put a yard.
Q.-That shewed at that time that the Government were more in favour of lanes than
yards?
A. Yes.
Q. And what difference does it make?
A. It cannot make the slightest difference in regard to light and air.
Q.-Then, what do you imagine the effect of that has been-the deletion of these what are called modifying clauses?
A. When the new Ordinance of 1903 was brought in, they struck out these two sections with reference to new houses, and substituted another clause in which they said that in building a new house, you would have to give a certain proportion of the roof area to form a yard, and in addition, you would have to provide a scavenging lane, but at the