June 15, 1907.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
As soon as the families come in they will pat, up cubicles. In comes the sanitary ins- pector, down go the cubicles. Out goes the sanitary inspector up g the cubicles again. And so this kind of Sisyphean jugglery goes on. You never really get rid of these cubicles. After a time along comes an epidemic and some Europeans are attacked by the disease, There is an immediate outery what is the negligent | Government doing? Why don't they clear out these hotbeds of disease?" The hotbeds are then cleared out. An interval of some years elapses during which plague is checked but Trade gets very bad and things are depressed. Then the same people come forward and say "These Government offici Is are well named blighters, for they blight the whole land by heir aureason- able regulations. Whoever bear of asking the Chinese families to live without enbicles?" So the sordid story goes on to the end of the chapter. Now, gentlemen, I am perfectly cou- vinced that you will have this cubicle question with you as long as you live, unless you take steps to force the owners of property to put up sanitary houses in which cubicle like rooms can be built in which Chinese families can decently live I bliere such can be done without loss. We have made proposals under which a larger number of people will be allowed to inhabit decen ly sanitary houses than were allowed under the old type. I am in great hopes that the com- munity as 8 whole will take this subject into their most serious consideration and try to arrive this time at some mr. thod of dealing with this question which will really settle it opce of all. It is a vere serious matter and affects the prosperity of the Colony. Plague mas loss of men-y, but there ar-- other epidemics of disease b sides plague to be thought of, and as long as an insanitary type of house is allowed to be built ad infinitum. one insanitary type of house to replace an. other that has gone before it, there
will never be any permaneut improrament. Gen. tlemen, I have made these few remarks because I consider that of all the points that have been brought forward in the report of the Commission there is no pint
which has
accepted as an earnest of the fact that the Government propose to deal thoroughly and bonestly with the report of the Commissioners. It would appear, gentlemen, recently what I may call the domestico-political atmosph re has been somewhat surcharged with electricity. It would seem as if the impression was abroad that the Government did not propose to deal in a sympathetic manner with the recommendations of the Commissioners, Now, gentlemen, I would beg to remind you that the report of the Commissioners criticises in a scathing manner a department for the administration of which the Government is more or less responsible. It fell to the lot of certain officers to reply to those criticisms and in their turn to criticise. It happened that the officers upon whom the duty fell represented the Ross, the Shamrock End the Thistle. Now, I need hardly remind you that if you roughly handle the rose or the thistle they are bound fe prick you As for that innocent little plant, the shamrock, is it not the emblem of a rac- which is not accustomed to sit down silently under a grievance? The Government consider that in this matter they have somewhat of a gri-vance, for the report of the Commissioners charges them in fact with adopting an unsympathetic attitude on what I may call their plague policy towards the Chinese population. Well, gentlemen, having received a broadside from the Commissioners and having returned that broadside we are now only too anxious to consider in the most sympathetic manner the recommendations and suggestions which the Commissiouers have made. (Applause.) I indicated as much in the few remarks made at the opening of this session but somehow or other these remarks seem to have been forgotten or in the heat of controversy they have been discounted. Among the several re- commendations and sugg stious by the Comms sioners there is one to which I would like to refer at some little length. That is the question of cubicles. Now, gentlemen, that is a most. important subject, for it touches the living accommodation of the poorer classes of the Cinese community. I have during the last few months, since my return from leave, devoted a great deal of time and a great deal of thought to this question. I have studied it not in my office in an arm-chair but by going out into the town aud revisiting blocks of houses with which I have been well acquainted during the last fourteen years owing to the opportunities offered to me while I was in the police, while I worked in two plague epidemics, and while I was a member of the Sanitary Bard. The result of my inspection, I wou'd like to say here, is that I find that the town as
a whole is in far more sanitary conditon just now ever I have known it before.
The HON. MR. HEWETT Continued-Your that a great deal of credit for this factFxcellency has spoken generally on the wording is due to the Sanitary Board, to the officers who had the direct control of the sanitary staff. and to the saui'ary staff itself, and last but not least to the Chinese community who have learned to appreciate the value of keeping thoroughly clean their own domestic dwellings. But my inspection prored to me one thing, and that is that the existing law relating to cubicles has failed, (Hear, hear, and applause.) We hoped, gentlemen, those who sat around this table for many weeks considering that Ordinance, No 1 of 1903 and No. 23 of 193, that by prohibiting cubicles in new houses we should force landowners to put up a more sani. tary type of dwelling. I may tell you that our hopes are woefully disappointed. The sort of thing that happens is this. Houses have to be rebuilt architects send in plans to us showing the old deep funneled shaped type of house lighted fore and aft but not at the side with which we are familiar. I received one of these plans not long ago myself and we wrote 10 the architect on behalf of the owuer. We said we beg ta remind you that when these houses are built cubicles will not be allowed on the floors. The architect, wrote back in polite terms "you mind your own business. The cubicles are regulated by the law and we know the law as well as you. What will be the fate of those houses? The owner will let them to another man who will sub-let them by the floor. The lessees of the floors, if the floors are inhabited as tenement dwellings, will sub- let them to a number of different families,
than think
a greater bearing on the prosperity of the Colony than this question of the housing of the Chinese population.
ma e
The Hos. Mr. HEWETT - Your Excellency, with your permission I would like to few remarks in reply to what you have just said and also in regard to the paper laid on the table this afternoon. If 1 am not in order
you will no doubt inform me of the fact and
I will then give notice of what I prop.se to gay later on.
There being no reply,
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your
firms, asked a certain number of architects to
bill. mike a report, paragraph by paragraph on this This was done. These landowners subse- quently forwarded a petition to the Governor dated 28th September, 1902, enclosing a copy of the report of these architects. In the draft bill paragraph 170, which is now par graph 175, one of the most contentious in the existing Or linance. contained reference to open spaces (reads) The criticism by the committee wa‹ that if these words 'by the owner" were interp-lated then compensation must be insistedˆ up 'n. Section 175, now section 18 of the existing Ordinance, also spoke of compensation with regard to back lanes and so forth. As originally drafted no provis on was mad for compensation but on the r presentations of certain property owners words were incorporated in subsection 8 section 175 (now 180) providing that the am unt of compensation to be paid to the owner should be determined by arbitration At the time Mr. Hooper wrote the letter, December 3rd, 1902, it was only about six weeks after the petition had been forwarded to the Governor-that way before the final draft had been passed oy the Cou cil-in any cas; ab at # month before that bill became law. Mr. Hooper in writing to Sir Henry Blake referred to the sma question of compensation and it was perfect y true that he made use of the words quoted by your Excellency in memorandum. (Reads) Mr. Hooper tells me that when he wrote that letter through a misconception which he regrets, he was not thoroughly conversant with the new Bill before it was finally passed. When he wrote that letter he ws under the impression tha the Government had honestly and ingally adopted the recommendations put forward in the report which had been drawn up at the nstance of the landowners. That is Mr. H-oper's explauation. I think it is only right that your Excellency should have given me, as you have done, the opportunity of making a per- sonal explanation in this chamber in view of the great publicity and considerable attached to
weight the letter of Mr. She ton Hooper, which he tells me was written under a misapprehension. He would not have written what he did bad he realise I that the com- pensation which owners had so strongly insisted on upon and was only their just due had besa eliminated or rather had not been adopted. thank Your Excellency for allowing me to This is the explanation and I big to
make it. I do not think that it was quite right that the Government should take advantage and make ospital out of a letter writ en in moment of misconception by a gentle- man who had some five yea s later ben a men- ber of the Commission. With regard to Your Excellency's remarks generally I can only say that no doubt there will be fall opportunity given to honourable members before long to dis- cuss the report and the papers bearing upon it. that bing so it is quite unnecessary to reply this afternoon in detail to what Your Excellency has said. There is one p int how ver to which I must refer. We gratefully acc-p' the assurance by Your Excellency that the Government are prepared to receive the report in a sympath tio manner, I trust that that will be proved
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official papers wich bave been laid before this Council I fail to see any re-l sympathy on the part of the Government towards this report.
of the report. I can only say as a member of this Council and of the late Commission I am only too glad to receive the assurances that the recommendations which presumably were made in the interests of the community at large will receive the fullest possible sympathy of the Government. There are a few joints to which I would like to refer. The first is the paper No. 24. a copy of which has been laid ou the fable and which includes a by facts but I can only say that judging by the copy of the letter dated 3rd Dec-mb-r, 1902, addressed to His Excellency Sir Henry Blake by Mr. Shelton Hooper. That letter, as your Excellency will remember, was specially referred to in your niemorandum on the report of the Commission. Considerable attention was directed in that memorandum to the statements then made by Mr.helton Hooper. Having been a member of the Commission, of which he was also member, I very naturally asked him how it came about that he had signed, along with other members of the Commission, the reommendations which were contained in the body of report in view of that letter. Mr. Ho per explained to me that the letter was written under a mis-
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apprehension, consequently what I am about to say takes the form of a personal explanation on behalf of him as one of my colleagues on the late Commission. I trust I shall be allowed therefore on behalf of Mr. Hooper to make an explanation showing that he has been perfectly cousi-tent throughout in what he bas written. As Your | Excellency will remember when the draft bill No. 1 of 19 3 was put before the public the principal landowners in Hongkong, including about twelve
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he gen I-men who collaborated with me in this report and myself spe it a great deal of time-far longer than we had any idea of when we were called upon to act, amounting to nearly a year-in seriously considering one of the most important questious that ha arisen in this Colony for a great number of y-ars and which practically affects not only the Government but every single resident Clearly therefre when such an important question was brought up there should be a question of parochial, or party politics or whatever you like to call it. It should be the sinoere wish of all those engaged in con. sidering the report to treat it in the most sympathetic manner and try to arrive at a con- clasion which will bring about the end to which I am sure all the officia and non-official members are working, that is the very best interests of the Colony in which we are situated. That bing
I must say with all due respect that I regret Your Excellency should have made use of the
word abuse.