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Section 66. When less than 250 cubic feet of air space per person are provided in a factory or workshop such factory or workshop shall be held to be so overcrowded as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of those employ- ed therein.
*Section 67. In every factory and workshop a notice must be affixed specifying the number of persons which can be employed in each room.
Section 68. In every room in every factory and workshop sufficient means of ventilation must be provided and maintained.
90. The Urban Council also regulates dangerous, unhealthy and offensive trades and occupations. "Dangerous trade" for the purposes of the Sanitation Ordinance means any manufacturing process or handicraft in which lead, arsenic, mercury, phosphorus or any other poisonous substance whatsoever is used. "Offensive trade" includes:-(a) the trades of blood-boiling, tripe-boiling, soap- boiling, fat-boiling, tallow-melting, resin-boiling, bone-boiling, bone-crushing, bone- burning, bone-storing, rag-picking, rag-storing, manure manufacture, blood-drying, fell-mongery, leather-dressing, tanning, glue-making, size-making, gut-scraping, storing, dressing, preparing sharks' fins, hair-cleaning, feather-storing, feather- cleaning, and pig-roasting (except the roasting of pigs in any domestic building or restaurant for consumption in such domestic building or restaurant by the inmates or visitors thereof); (b) any trade, business or manufacture which is declared by the Council by bylaw to be an offensive trade; (c) any trade, business, or manu- facture which is carried on in such a way as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of persons engaged in it, or in such a way as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of persons residing in the neighbourhood; and (d) any other noxious. offensive, noisome or unhealthy trade, business or manufacture whatsoever. Offen- sive trades are confined by the Council to certain areas and the Council has issued detailed regulations for their control.
91. Although there has been in Hong Kong no conciliation nor arbitration machinery in the form of boards of inquiry and arbitration, conciliation and arbitra- tion have been recognized as part of the functions of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and the settlement of various industrial disputes during the last twenty years has been facilitated by his agency. Various problems as they arise have been investigated by commissions specially appointed for the purpose such as the com- mission referred to above which was appointed to inquire into the conditions of the industrial employment of children in Hong Kong. In 1927 a Labour Sub-department / was established in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs to deal with guilds, labour disputes, and cost of living. After about two years existence its activities were curtailed owing to shortage of staff and the general quietude which descended in Hong Kong as in China over labour matters.
92. About the same time as the special labour department was created a Labour Advisory Board was appointed. This Board still exists and in 1938 consisted of The Secretary for Chinese Affairs (Chairman), The Secretary and Cashier of His Majesty's Naval Yard (representing the Commodore), The Assistant Director of Supply and Transport of the China Command (representing His Excellency the General Officer Commanding), a representative of the Public Works Department, the Manager of the Taikoo Dockyard, the Manager of the Hong Kong Electric Company, and the Manager of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery, with the Chief Assistant to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs as secretary. It will be observed that the members consist entirely of representatives of large Government Departments and employers of labour. There are no workers" representatives and it may be presumed that the purpose of the Board was largely to correlate the attitude of Government and other large employers of labour. The Labour Advisory Board rarely functioned and was convened last in 1936 on a comparatively small matter submitted to it by Govern- ment regarding the Chinese New Year bonus to its lower paid employees.
93. While it functioned the Labour Sub-Department at the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs performed a considerable amount of work in investigating the activities of existing guilds and unions. Although registration or exemption there-
*This regulation appears not to be enforced.