46
The Chief Justice said he did not feel any difficulty about this matter, therefore he would give his reasons at once. Hodd not think leave to appeal should be given unless some prima facie case was made out.
In this case the matter had been very well put by Mr. Slade and put as fairly and fully as possible. In August, 1901, the defendants in the Court below Lecame tenants of certain premises which they wanted to use for boiler-making purposes, This was a noisy trade and it required premises adapted to the work. The tenants went in and they made some holes in the walls to suit their work. The tenancy was monthly -oral. not written and it was stipulated what was to happen as regards repairs. here were three clauses, The first stipulated that if the tenants removed the premises must be replaced as they were originally. That provided that if the tenants suddenly abandoned the premises they had to repair the walls and the doors. If the landlord took back the shops and rented them to other persons the walls and doors need not be repaired, which he thought, ineunt that if the landlord determined the tenancy the tenant need not do the repairs There was then the third provision which he could only
take in the words of the translation furnished by the plaintiff in the Court below. This was to the effect that if the laws of the English Government prohibited the people from working in these shops then the walls and doors must be repaired as they originally were. It wax admitted that the carrying on of a boilermaking
on
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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Thursday, 14th July.
IN BANKRUPTCY.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR W. M. GOODMAN
(CHIEF JUSTICE).
RECEIVING ORDER.
Mr. C. E. H. Beavis, of Messrs. Wilkinson and Grist, solicitors, appeared in support of an application for a receiving order in the case of Ng Wan Ching (deceased) ex parte Tong shown to be insufficient for the payment of its debts.
Shan Nam. He stated that the estate
Was
His Lordship made a receiving order and appointed the Official Receiver (Mr. Bruce Shepherd trustee.
AN ISSUE ORDERED.
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(July 16, 1904.
allowing the overflow from these two reservoirs to waste.
The PRESIDENT stated in answer to the first question that he was unaware that any connec- tion had been shown between drains and plagne The VICE-PRESIDENT replied to the second question as follows:---
The upkeep of the public drains of the city is in the hands of the Public Works Depart ment and tanks are in existence for the purpose of flushing the street sewers. The house drains
at this time of the year get well flushed from
the flow of rainfall into them off portions of the
roofs and the yards of houses-possibly a quan- *ity considerably in excess of what the street sewers were designed to carry.
It would he quite impossible to entertain this suggestion for the reason alone that the filter. beds of the waterworks could not meet the de- In the bankruptcy case of Li Cheung ex-
mand on them thus entailed (for all the water must be filtered that goes through the main) parte the debtor. Mr. H. K. Holmes, solicitor,
and the service reservoirs would quick. appeared in support of an application for Li Cheung and others to appear in Court, madely run dry if countless taps were opened simul. by the Wing Fuk Tai firm. It appeared that faneously. Again, this suggested method of the applicant had a lease of certain property flushing is useless the running of a tap does from the bankrupt and wanted compensation not cause a flush. that a tank or a shower of for its withdrawal.
rain ensures. At the present time there are no reservoirs overflowing.
The Official Receiver stated that he had anthority from two of the creditors to offer $1,000 in respect of this claim, and it had been refused.
!
His Lordship said that after looking into the case he would say that 82,000 was a fair sum to
in the of compensation.
way
Jay
said he would have to consult his partner in Canton before agreeing to those terms.
After further discussion,
to whether the lease was valid for 30 years at His Lordship ordered an issue to be tried as
$72.50 per month from October. 19905.
HONGKONG SANITARY
BOARD
A meeting of the Sanitary Board was held on the 14th instant in the Board Room. Dr. J. M. Atkinson presided, and there were also present Hon. P. N. Jones (Vice-President). Hon A. W. Brewin. Registrar-General; Mr. F. J. Badeley, Captain of Police: Colonel W. E. Webb. R.A.M.C.. Mr. Lau Chu Pak, Mr. Fung Wa Chun; Mr. A. Rumjahn: Hon. H. E. Pollock, K.C.: Dr. W. W. Pearse, Medical Officer of Health: Dr. H. A. Macfarlane, Assistant Medical Officer of Health; and Mr. T. A. Hanmer (Secretary).
Mr. POLLOCK asked if the flushing tank which had been erected near the Cathedral had been constantly put in use for flushing purposes and whether or no the flushing operations had been successful?
The VICE-PRESIDENT stated that the tank
were satisfactory.
NULLAHS.
There had been sent to the Government a recommendation regarding the training of a nullah at the west side of the Racecourse and two running into the Parade Ground at Mount Austen Barracks. The Colonial Secretary replied that the matter had been noted for further consideration; but that there were other -. nu-lahs more important than those mentioned which would have to be dealt with first.
URBAN AND RURAL DISTRICTS.
A minute by the Sanitary Surveyor relative to urban and rural districts in Kowloon and on the mainland generally was referred back to the M. (). H. and the Sanitary Surveyor.
A NUISANCE.
trade was a noisy trade and might be a nuisance The representative of the Wing Fang Tai had been flushing twice a day and the results and probably would be unless carried on in! some place suitable for it. There had been complaints apparently, and the Government decided to put a stop to some of those noisy trades. They did not seem to want to proceed harshly, for they gave two years notice to the people beforehand so that they might look out for suitable premises. On 1st December. 1902. the Government gave notice to the *Crown lessee in this case that a noisy trade
was being carried
in the premises of which he was the registered owner, without a licence and in contravention of the covenant contained in the Crown lease; and that unless such contravention ceased before 1st December. 1904, the Crown would proceed to re-enter upon the premises pursuant to the conditions of the Crown lease. The letter containing this notice was handed by the Crown lessee to the sub-lessee, the landlord in this case, who went to the tenant, showed it to him and told him to go. His Lordship could not con- ceive anything much more clear than that intima. tion to go.
It was a notice to quit, not through | any desire on the part of the landlord to get rid of the tenant, but because he did not want to The first item on the agenda was the following endanger his Crown lease. His lease was not resolution :-That Inspector Robert Gardner endangered by the law of the land but by the McEwen he appointed for the purpose of carry. special covenant which he had entered into ining out the provisions of the bye-laws for the that lease. Therefore it did not seem to his Prevention or Mitigation of Epidemic. Endemic Lordship that the law of the land, the law or Contagious Disease, under the Public Health of English Government, stopped those and Buildings Ordinance, 1903. people from working. Indeed the letter from the English Government in its broadest interpretation did not stop them from working till several months later. Therefore instead of waiting until that letter stopped them from working, the lessee, as soon as he got this letter, went and saw the tenant and said he had
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to go.
The tenant looked about for new pre- mises. He paid his rent up to the end of the month, although he had gone in the middle of the month. Plaintiff claimed 8487, being $192 for four months' rent and the balance for breach of contract to put the premises into repair. Was there such a breach of contract? Ha thought that if a person had come down and got an injunction against him under the ordinary law the tenant would have had to do the repairs. If an Ordinance had been passed saying that within a certain radius no boiler-making establishments could be carried on, under those circumstances the law of the British Government would have stepped in and he would have had to repair. Neither of these things happened. He was told to go, the reason being that the landlord is afraid that if he does not comply with the terms of his Crown lease it would be endangered. His Lordship thought that leave to appeal should not be granted. If leave were granted he was of opinion that the appeal would be dismissed, even if no one appeared on the other side.
The Puisne Judge concurred.
CONSIDERED IN PRIVATE.
The PRESIDENT moved that it be considered
in private, and the motion was agreed to.
QUESTIONS.
The PRESIDENT stated that there had been two questions received from Mr. Rumjahn, too late for circulation, but as the answers had been got ready he thought they might be given now.
The questions were as follows:---
1. Has the attention of the President been drawn to a paragraph in the Daily Press of the 13th inst. under the heading
'Canton." which states that owing to the recent heavy rains "the total disappearance of plague here can be attributed only to this cause." thus proving my contention previously made, that after heavy rains cleansing the drains and washing the houses Canton would be compara- tively free from plague; and what steps does the President intend to take to flush the drains of this city in addition to the general cleansing of houses which is being carried out?
2. Will the President be good enough to request the Government to direct the occupants of buildings situate within the areas of water supply from Pokfulam and Wongnicheong Reservoirs to allow their taps to run contin- uously for such time as the overflow from these reservoirs lasts, with a view of flushing their house drains and to make no charge for extra consumption during that period on the occup- ants who are supplied with water, instead of
There was submitted a petition from house. holders and residents at Kowloon requesting the cancellation of a pigstye licence and the removal of a piggery at the corner of Garden and Chater Roads.
The PRESIDENT said he had caused the M.0.H. to make enquiries into this matter and there was little doubt that the piggery was a nuisance.
Mr. POLLOCK moved that when the question of the renewal of the licence was brought up the licence should be refused.
Hon. Mr. BREWIN seconded, and the motion was adopted.
AUTHORISED CONTRACTORS.
An application from Messrs. Sang Lee & Co. requesting that their name may be placed on the list of authorised contractors was approved on the motion of the PRESIDENT, seconded by Mr. RUMJAHN,
APPLICATIONS.
A number of applications for exemption from the provisions of the Public Health and Build- ings Bill were also considered.
LIMEWASHING.
There was laid on the table correspondence relative to the advisability of inserting in the limewashing advertisement the exact require- ments of the Board in connection with the lime- washing of premises.
The President wrote that he thought it would be advisable to insert in the advertisement the exact requirements.
The M.O.H. minuted that the word "through- out" used in this notice meant that the houses should be limewashed in respect of all the walls of each room and staircase-all cubicle partitions, stair-casings and stair linings, all ceilings and the undersides of roofs both in main buildings and offices and servants' quarters and inclusive of verandahs. The backyard should have its containing walls limewashed up to the level of the first floor. Carved, painted and polished woodwork in good
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