October 5, 1907.J
THE CUBICLE QUESTION.
The report of the committee appointed to consider and make suggestions for dealing with the Cubicle question, was yesterday laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor.
The report was as follows:- Recommendations agreed to by the Com mittee appointed by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government to enquire into and report upon the Cubicle question generally.
1.
Cubicles must be permitted in houses, 2. As regards construction of cabioles, wool, metal or other materi l approved by the Building Authority should be laid down as the rule, subject to such being painted, whitewashed or otherwise kept olean to the satisfaction of the Sanitary Board.
3. As rezards dimensions of such, the *present limits prescribed by 8-ction 154 should be adhered to, with the discretion presently existing and exercised by the Sanitary Board but without the necessity for the consent of the Governor-in-Council,
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4. The conditions of the construction and maintenance of cubicles in existing houses should be left to the discretion of the Sanitary Board, without reference to the Governor-in- Council.
In the above connection the Board is recom. mended to exercise to the full extent its discretion provided for in the proviso to section 154 of the Principal Ordinance in the direction of permitting as many cubicles as is expedient on all floors including the ground floor after inspection of the premises by competent officers. The number of cubicles allowed on each for should be painted up conspicuously on such floor. 5. An addition should be made to the law in the shape of a proviso to Section 46, viz. :--- Any room not containing a cubicle may be inhabited to the extent of one adult person to every 30 square feet of floor space and 330 cubic feet of air space.
Sab-section 153 (b) 3 should be amended to permit the occupation of an accountant's office in a shop by not more thau two persons at night.
6. In regard to re-erected houses, cubicles should-be allowed in the same manner and to the same extent as in existing houses.
The words " or re-erected" should be struck out of Section 153 sub-section (a) and the follow- ing added:-" on any site which is now vacant or which is now occupied by domestic buildings of a European type or by any non-domestic building."
This will permit cubicles in re-erected houses of the tenement class, but will prohibit them in new houses on sites hitherto unoccupied by tenement houses of the ordinary Chinese type.
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7. The Building Authority should have power by law to require that, in the case of domestic buildings erected on these sites, if intended for Chinese tenements, provision be made for the sub-divison of each storey above the ground storey into rooms of a suitable area, the idea being to insist upon a proper provision of win- dow spaces in such houses either laterally, or in such other manner as the architects may be able to devise,
8. No question of compensation arises in con- nection with any of the foregoing recommend ations.
9. Government should undertake the demoli- tion of the upper flo.rs of every third house in blocks of Chinese tenements repayment of the expenditure incurred being made by the owners of the adjoining houses in respect of the improvements to their property by means of annual instalments extended over a period of years and calculated at such rate of in- terest as to ultimately recoup the Government for all its outlay.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
HENRY KESWICK, HO KAI.
FRANCIS CLARK,
Medical Officer of Health.
WEI YUX.
10th Angust, 1907. With regard to para. 9 I am unable to agree with the report. My personal experience in carrying out works upon old hinese buildings leads me to believe that it will be, in a great majority of cases, impracticable-for structural reasons or only pra ticable at the expense of what would almost amonat to re-building.
These costly works, however provided for must lead to a considerable increase of rentals -to be paid for out of he meagre earnings of the coolie and artizan clas--and I am not satisfied that the community, and especially the poorer Chinese section of it, will profit proportionately by this further increase in the cost of living here.
EDWARD A. RAM.
I agree to the recommendations as a means of improving the housing of the working classes but 1 do not agree that they, of themselves, are sufficient to eradicate Plague which in my opinion can only be affected by more frequent and thorough cleansing and the destruction of
rate and vermin.
I DWARD OSBORNF.
I am in acso d with Messrs. Ram and Osborne, and sign the recommendation in the hope that it may bring some improvment in the future. I consider however that § 154 of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance No. 1 of 1903 (as amended by Ordinances 20 and 23 of 1903) with its proviso would have properly met the case, assuming of course that the Sanitary Departmeat carried out its duties in an in- telligent manner.
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THE BRITISH POST OFFICE ÁT TIENTSIN.
We are pleased to be in a position to assure - our readers says the Tientsin Times, that there is every prospect of the British Port Office 23 au institution of Tientsin being maintained. We are not at liberty to at present enter into det ils as to the steps being taken, but it is satisfactory to know that the British mercantile com. munity, supported by the cther nationals who freely use the post office, have no intention of allowing the office to be closed if ways and means are forthcoming to keep it open.
Though there has as yet been no time for anything but telegraphic negotiations with Hongkong, these have been of a sufficiently explicit nature to afford a very good basis for public action, and this has been and is being energetically taken by the British Municipality, the Chamber of Commerce and China Associa tion. It is an open secret that the post office is at present being worked at a loss not so far as the local office is concerned but in regard to the steamer subsidies for the transportation of the mails, and it is this transportation deficit which actuated the Hongkong Government in only making the agreement for a year and in now deciding to close the office.
In reply to the strong protests made by the local Chamber of Commerce an offer has now
been generously made by the Hongkong Go- veroment which it is probable will be accepted and we hope in the course of a few days to be in a position to officially state what has been decided on,
That Tientsin will not consent to be again placed at serious postal disadvantage as com. pared with the minor ports of Chefoo, Amoy, Hankow, etc., may be taken as assured, and we may look for the office which has proved a valuable saving to the community to be per- manently established,
In the past, however, the Sanitary Board by stricking closely to the letter of the law, and without taking the responsibility of exercising its judgment, has harassed the Chinese i to a manner of expedients to obtain a certain amonat of privacy and decency for themselves, such expedients being far worse than the evils with which the Ordinance was intended to deal.
In support of my opinion I quote the follow- MR. P. W. SERGEANT'S NEW BOOK ing official reply dated 25th July, 1907, to my enquiry as to bow often the terms of the proviso had been availed of :—
"The number of cases in which the Sanitary Board have recommended to the Governor in Council modifications of or ex mption from the requirements of § 154 of the Public Health and Building Ordinance, 19:33, is as follows :
1903,
1904,
19.5,
1906, 1907,
4 Applications.
4
доде.
3 24
31
There are well over 5,000 Chinese tenement houses in which cabicles are used. It would be absurd to suggest that one hard and fast rule could be usefully made applicable to them all; much more so to endeavour to enforce it.
HENRY KESWICK, Colonial Secretary's Office,
Hongkong, 3rd May, 1907. EIR, -I am directed to invite the attention of the Sanitary Board to the proviso contained in Section 151 of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance which to judge from rep resentations recently made to Government does not appear to have been availed of by the Board to deal with the cubicle question. I am now to suggest as a practical means for giving as much latitude in the use of the cubicles as is compatible with reasonable sanitary requirements to the poorer classes of Chinese inhabiting tenement houses, that the Board by means of some of its officers institute a house inspection and decide what number of cubicles might reasonably be allowed to be erected and maintained in each floor, and thereafter make recommendations accordingly for modification or exemption by the Governor. I am, etc
The houses left standing will, if paragraph 5 is soted upon, legally house the persons dis-in-Council. placed from the buildings so demolished.
Provided that any other scheme recommended by the Sanitary Board may be carried out in lieu of the above,
A. M. THOMSON,
Colonial Treasurer.
W. CHATHAM,
Director of Public Works,
EDWARD A. RAM. EDWARD OSBORNE,
The Secretary,
SANITARY BOARD.
A. M. THOMSON,
Colonial Secretary.
6.
ANOTHER HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY, Mr. C. Werner Laurie of London is the pablisher of Mr. Philip W. Sergeant's new book, entitled. The Last Empress of the French.' Mr. Sergeant, who left Hongkong over three years ago, as in the interval attained the posi- tion of an authority on modern French history, especially of the biographical sort. His Bur lesque Napoleon" received as favourable notice as his "Courtships of Catherine," and now this account of the life of the Empress Eugenie must be hailed as a worthy successor of the former works. Although the lady is still living, it does not appear that the author has the ad- vantage of any special authorisation or as- sistance. He has undertaken a most careful research in the bibliographia of the subject, and added the shrewd analysis and discreet eclecticism that characterised his previons essays in this field. The record is brought right up to date, which alone makes it an indispensable addition to the literature devoted to the period and persons treated. As usual, he is a kindly biographer, to his subjects faults a little blind, though he cannot conceal the fact that some of the vagaries of her youth ruffld the suscepti- bilities of an age more conventional than her own. People falked of her riding in the streets of Madrid on a fiery bare-backed horse, with a cigrette in her mouth; of her appearance in brilliaut Andalusian costumes at bulld fights, with not a fan but a whip in her band and a dagger in her belt, with re- satin boots on her feet, and flowers and jewels in the broad golden plaits of her hair; and so forth. At Fontainebleau, in later years, are told of the Empress gathering her skirts. about her and sliding down a sandbank, calling
Follow your leader!' promptly imitated by all; her suite." Indeed, the book is far from "dry," and readers will absorb political history re dily with the relish hre afforded. The other manners of other times have to be allowed for, and the reader will be convinced that herein he has a faithful picture of an interesting court, with a remarkable history. The book is
It is reported from Peking that a sum of Tis 200,000 has been drawn from the treasury of the Kinklang Customs for the purpose of pur-published at 12s. 6d. nett. chasing a ornisor for Kiangsi.
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