+
380
than
to
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[June 2, 1900.
The Bill passed through the Committee stage and was then read a third time and passed.
The Council then adjourned until Monday
MEETING OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE.
then held, the Acting Colonial Secretary pre- A meeting of the Finance Committee was siding, and the following vote was agreed to :~~~
The following gums for expenses, during the 1900, connected with a Land Court under The seven months, 1st June to 31st December, Land Court (New Territories) Ordinance, 1900:-
The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY—I am gentleman on my left in his expressions on sure we all sympathise with the honourable behalf of the respectable Chinese. The plague.week, however, visits the homes of the poorer Chinese principally. At the present time search parties plague there is confined to the working classes. are searching in the Wanchai district, and the
leave their homes to go These people rise at dawn, and immediately bread, and it is with the object of catch- and earn their ing them before they go to work that the amended Bye-law has been brought forward. It has been found that a man suffering from plague will go out and follow his avocation, thereby infecting his neighbours, and it may be that at sundown he is dead. I may say that in the year 1898 I was engaged in plague work myself from six to eight in the mornings, and I never noticed that anyone was put to the slightest inconvenience. It would be a great pity to refer the Bye-law back, seeing that it has already been referred back once, and I would suggest to the representatives of the Chinese that if the officers of the Sanitary Board are instructed not to carry out the Bye-law in res- pect of the dwellings of the respectable Chinese this will get over the difficulty. "I think the line be drawn at floors occupied by two or more may families.
withdrawn.
On this understanding the amendment was
The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS said that both the Medical Officer and himself as President of the Sanitary Board would issue orders whereby the Bye-law as amended would sible. harrass the respectable Chinese as little as pos-
The motion was then put and carried.
AMENDING THE STANDING ORDERS.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL gave notice that at the next meeting of the Council he would move the Council. a resolution amending the Standing Orders of
NATURALISATION.
The Bill entitled an Ordinance for the natur- alization of Leung Shek Chin, alias Leung Foon It subsequently passed through the committee Man. alias Leung Kin was read a second time. stage, and was read a third time and passed.
I do not know whether it has been proved, but it is the general impression that a great number of people have been frightened into plague through the visits of these search parties. When the visits are paid between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. & medical officer can easily be procured to examine any suspected case, because most people are up by 8 a.m. and there is someone who understands English about and who can explain matters. Thus if any wrong is committed it can easily be set right, but it will be different under the amended Byelaw. I venture to say that at five o'clock in morning 999 out of 1,000 people will be in bed, and not only the male population but the women and children. Imagine to yourselves the feelings of a man aroused in the early morn- ing from a sound sleep by being summoned to open the door to admit a who want to look into every
search party, nook and corner in the place and very likely examine the children, women and men, to see whether they had the fever or not. It is not merely a case of a search party going into a place to see whether it is clean or not, but to see whether any person is suffering from plague or any other disease, and this will cause the Chinese popnlation of Hongkong such inconvenience and alarm that they would be far better away from here in a much hotter place
Hongkong. It seems to me that the plague would not make half as much mischief as the search parties under this amended Bye-law. On behalf of the Chinese community I cannot offer too rong an opposition to the amended Bye-law. So far as I can gather from the newspaper report of the Sanitary Board, the reason for the amendment is that there are a certain number of dead bodies thrown into the streets. Some years ago, when General Black was Act- ing Governor, the
saine thing occurred. some 10 or 12 bodies being found in the streets daily. At that time a drastic measure was pro- posed by the Sanitary Board, namely have all the bodies found in the street cremated.| This naturally caused a great commotion among the Chinese, and I and my colleague, the Hon. Wei A Yuk, were deputed by them to interview General Black. The remedy we proposed was that the Tung Wah Hospital should open a branch hospital at Kennedytown and that the Chinese should be allowed to treat their own plague cases according to their own methods, Having found out from them that their great objection to reporting plague cases was reading of the Bill entitled an Ordinance to fur- The ATTORNEY-GENERAL proposed the second that they were not allowed to have their own medical treatment, and that they were
ther amend the Protection of Women and Girls mored to a European hospital, where they were
Ordinance, 1897, and to repeal two sections of the Protection of Women and Girls Amend- subjected to treatment of which they did not ment Ordinance. 1899. approve. When that branch hespital was opened this Bill in reality made a
He observed that by the kind permission of General Black. the
very slight al- number of dead bodies found in the street di-sub-section 3 of section 2, which ran as follows. teration indeed in the law being contained in minished, being reduced from 10 or 12 a day to one or two. This year a branch, hospital has on our representation been opened in connection with Tung Wah Hospital, and circulars have been distrubuted among the power classes of Chinese telling them that they need not be afraid to report their cases, and that the Sani- tary Board had relaxed a certain regulation to induce people to report carese of plague. For example, when a case of plague occurred in a to the Protection of Women and Girls directed house it was usual to disinfect the whole house and not merely the floor where the case occurred,
to be made by the Secretary of State. It seemed to me that the amendments of sections 3 and 9 but now if a case is reported only the floor of Ordinance No. 31 of 1899, so directed to be occupied by the patient is disinfected. Pre-made, could be effected most conveniently and riously the occupants of the other floors would simply by repealing those sections altogether, subscribe to pay the expense of smuggling a body away, to avoid the inconvenience of having of 1897, amended sections containing the amend- and substituting directly, in Ordinance No. 31 their rooms disinfected, but by the relaxing of this regulation it is to the interest of the oc-
ments desired; for sections 3 and 9 of Ordinance No. 31 of 1899 were, themselves, merely sections cupants of the floors where there is no plague amending the Protection of Women and Girls to compel the occupant of the floor where there Ordinance, 1897, and the amendment of amend is a case to report it. It is not the respectable ing sections sometimes tends to confusion. The classes among the Chinese who are to blame. only actual alterations in the law effected by When they report a case they can under cer- tain conditions remove the patient from the
this Ordinance are the addition of subsection (3) colony, and it is the same with their dead. but and the insertion of the words "generally or of section 2 to the previous two sub-sections, the poorer classes cannot do this; hence their specially authorized" instead of the words " neglect to report cases. I can understand that erally authorized," in the substituted section 30, to a certain extent in a case like this the set out in section 3. All the rest of this Ordin- innocent must suffer with the But at the same time there is a
guilty. ance is simply a re-enactment of existing law." of suffering, and the fact that search parties and was then read a third time and passed.
The Bill passed through the committee stage would be going round at five o'clock in the morning would be so objectionable to the respec- table classes among the Chinese that many of them would remove from the city.
re-
maximum
The Hon. WEIA YUK seconded the amendment.
THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS ORDINANCE.
-"In
proof that any
any proceedings under this section woman in such brothel is deemed sufficient evidence until the contrary is or was suffering from venereal disease shall be proved that she was or is in such brothel for the purpose of prostitution." the objects and reasons of the Bill :—"
The following were object of this Ordinance is to make cer- The tain amendments in the Ordinances relating
gen-
THE PENSIONS ORDINANCE. The Council went in Committee on the bill entitled an Ordinance to consolidate and amend the widows and orphans of deceased public officers. the law providing for the grant of pensions to
Salaries
$10,500.00
Travelling Allowances 1,000.00 Incidental Expenses...
This was all the business.
2,300.00
$13,800.00
SUPREME COURT.
May 28th.
IN ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR JOHN CARRINGTON,
KT., C.M.G. (CHIEF JUSTICE).
A TRADE MARK CASE-NG LEE HING V. HONG MAN YUK.
Mr. Francis, Q.C. (instructed by Messrs. Des- con and Hastings) appeared for the plaintiff. He said the motion was ex parte for an injunc tion to restrain until the suit, or until the fur- ther order of the court, the defendant from trading and carrying on business under the style or firm name of Shu Chuen Yuen, of Amoy, and from using the style of Shu Chuen Yuen in connection with the manufacture or sale
of any medicated wine of his own manufacture and from using the plaintiff's trade mark in connection with the manufacture or sale of any medicated wines. The applica- plaintiff and the other by a servant of his. He tion was supported by two affidavits, one by the thought he ought to state to his Lordship, as this was an ex parte application, that there was some shadow of a justification possibly for the defendant making use or attempting to make use of the trade mark. The shop in which the de- fendant now was, was formerly in the occupation of a man who was connected with the plaintiff firm in Amoy and who some two years ago had been their agent for the sale of this wine. This man got into debt or difficulties here, and judg- Court and execution issued. The man fled from ment was obtained against him in the Summary the colony and his goods were seized by the bailiff of the court. The bailiff, after advertising trade marks that might belong to it. In the the business for sale, sold the good-will and any shop, there were found a number of labels which related to some stock previously and pro- perly in use in the shop. This occurred last year. There could be no possible doubt as to the plaintiff's prior right to the trade mark, because some time prior to the date of the auction sale the plaintiff applied for the regis tration of this trade mark. The application provisions of the Trade Marks Ordinance the was opposed by the defendant; and under the dispute between the parties was referred to the learned Acting Attorney-General, Mr. Pollock, who decided against the defendant and in favour of the plaintiff, and the trade mark was duly registered.
asked for was granted.
After some further observations the order
May 31st.
IN APPELLATE JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR JOHN CABRING- TON, KT., C.M.G. (CHIEF Justice) and HIS HONOUR T. SERCOMBE SMITH (PUISNE JUDGE.)
CHAN
KIT SAN AND ANOTHER, APPELLANTS, V. HO FUNG WANG, RESPONDENTS. The Chief Justice gave judgment as follows:- The Respondent in this case moves the Court to set aside the order of the Court made ex parte on the 26th March, 1900, granting leave to the