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law. It appears to me possible that the Court might be called upon to require the Governor in Executive Council, in spite of such refusal, to state a case for the next Full Court when a question of difficulty and delicacy would be raised, which I suggest to your Excellency it would be better if possible to avoid. I have not seen the article as amended, but there is one farther point on which I have been some what exercised, and to which I think it right also to draw your Excellency's attention. Is it quite clear that the question will come before the Fall Court to be argued by both sides anless, of course, one party makes default? The Court cannot act as adviser to the Govern- ment. As I say, I have not seen the text of the article, and it may be that there is no room for doubt on this question.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND | watched the forging of the long chain of causes and effects in which it is an additional link. I did not join in the debate on the second read- ing because the comprehensive speech with which it was opened lafo nothing that could at the time, advantageously be added in upholding the main principle. In the position of an avowed adherent of that principle, to listen to the first speaker's overwhelming attack in defence of it, was much like what I imagine it must be to watch, from some coign of vintage in the rear, the delivery of a brilliant and successful cavalry charge. To bare followed in support would have been to trample on fallen enemies. The enemies then ridden down are the ideas which every now and then rally round someone who raises a cry for representative institutions in this Colony and who agitates for a muni- cipality as a first step. In commenting at the time on the vigour of that onslaught, Your Excellency proceeded upon the assumption that the fallen were dead. I know them of old. I knew that they were only down not done for, and inasmuch as they have risen up since and show signs of recovery I propose briefl to
the charge. It may, I
return
to
I have the honour to be
Your obedient servant,
(8d.) F. T. PIGGOTT. Well, Sir, the effect of that letter as regards paragraph one is that in the view of bis Honour the Chief Justice, the Court might be asked to order by mandamus the Governor-in-Council to state a case for the opinion of the Full Court if the appellant desires it, and the Governor-in-think, advantageously be reaffirmed that Connoi has not acquiesced in the application, these ideas have no influential backing in The clause as it reads vests a discretionary this Colony; that they are neither so widely nor power in the Governor-in-Council. The so tenaciously held as might be supposed by words Are "The Governor-in-Council may anyone deriving his impressions from utterances at any time in his descretion." In my
in the local press. Of one thing I am very sure- humble opinion, assuming the discretion has that they are held in scant favour by the leading been fairly exercised, no proceedings for man- members of the merointile community. The damus would lie. If the duty cast on the leading members of the mercantile community Governor-in-Council be of a judicial character do not want to govern municipally, and they a mandamus would be granted, only where there certainly do not want to be governed muni. is a refusal to perform it in any way; not where cipally, under any so-called popular system. it is done in one way rather than another, Toe consensus of o inion is that auder erroneously instead of properly. In other words the special circumstances of our environ- the Court will only insist that the person who ment the existing system is suitable enough. is to judge shall act as such; it will not True, as regards the working of the sys- dictate in what way his judgment shall be tem they frequently make free use of te given. It was not the intention of the Council, right of every Briton. Bat as regards the when it passed the clause as it stands at present, principle of authority in our municipal affairs that the discretion of the Governor-in-Council, resting with the servants of the Crown there is which will at all times be fairly practical unanimity among those for whom I exercise, should be fettered. Having re- speak, and on their behalf I congratulate the gard to the language of the Chief Justice that Government upon having maintained it. "the Court might be called upon to require the
Goterament are further to be congratulated Governor-in-Executive Council in spite of such upon having kept steadily in view the fundamental refusal to state a case for the opinion of the principle of the original Bill, which in turn is Full Court when a question of diffealty and grounded upon the essential economic fact of delicacy would be raised which I suggest to Your Excellency it would be better if possible to Hongkong is a wharf. That is its primary avoid." Having regard to the remarks of his function. Its function as aware-house is Honour the Chief Justice the Government pro-secondary. So is its function as a mart and poses to insert at the end of olauss 85 express words: to meet the apprehensions of the Chief Justice "no proceedings by way of mandamus, injunction, prohibition or other orders shall be taken against the Governor-in-Council in re- spect of anything arising out of this action." I may explain, Sir, that this will not affect the Com. mon Law remedies which exist in the previous clauses, but simply having regard to the opinion of the Chief Justice in reference to the phraseology it only provides that the rights of the Governor-in-Council, the discretion vested in the Governor-in-Council, shall not be fettered in any way by any such application.
Hon. Mr. POLLOCK proposed an amendment to section 265A by inserting the words "by order" in line 14. His object, be explained, was to make section 265 A fit in with section 265 B. The amendments were accepted and passed,
Council then resumed.
our existence.
The
distributing centre. If ships do not come here to discharge, there will be nothing to buy, sell, or distribute except granite. The shores of the old world are strewn with the crambling ruins of cities formerly enjoying prosperity akin to ours, great commercial emporiums, busy and thriving ports, from whose quays the stream of commerce has, for one reason or another, been diverted-the study of the causes of whose decline has a special claim upon the attention of all concerned in guiding the destiny of any modern maritime city. Humanly speaking, however, we may confident ly rely upon the natural advantages of the harbour to attract shipping, if only we can keep the port free and uninfected. To ensure this by all available legislative and administrative mens is the boundea duty of the Government. That is the hal of the truth which appeals most powerfully to the mercantile section of the community. The mandate contained in the petition of 1901 was issued on the strength of it. But though it is the bounden duty of the Goveroment to so legislate and administer, it is The COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded.
also theirs to see that they go no step beyond The Hon. Mr. MURRAY STEWART:-The that duty in the direction of imposing onerous importance to the Colony of the legislation bardens upon the community; it is incumbent which is now before us in its final stage will, I upon them to take care that in the endeavour to hope, be held to justify the somewhat unusual secure the health of the port they do not but not disorderly course of reaffirming certain unnecessarily impair the wealth of the port, relevant truths, by way of preface to the Third either by soaring capital away from property, Reading. Even the old resident has his uses, or by harassing andaly the Chinese population, and one of these is to remind this rapidly upon whose content and wellbeing, equally with changing community of the continuity which tonnage, our prosperity depends. This is the runs through its somewhat chequered existence. other half of the truth which naturally impresses Newcomers and short sojourners in our midst itself up n the property owning section those to whom life in Hongkong is merely of the community. This is the half dull or a pleasant interlude-may hardly realise,of the truth which the report of the how that sense of continuity lends an in. terest to an otherwise humdrum oocasion like to present, in the eyes of those who have
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL-I think, Sir, that the Bill has been thoroughly thrashed out, and all contentious matters are at an end. I would move that the Bill be read a third time.
Sanitary Commission energetically advanced. Truth emerges from the opposition of half. truths. To find the point at which truth so
(July 6, 1908. emerges is one of the functions of Government. The contention over the public bealth has always obe susly been a collision of half truths, and though to some it may seem unprofitable to dis cuss inter-dependent interests as though they were divergent, it is almost necessiry for par- poses of discussion to consider the community by sections. Property owners are a highly important section of the community, but those responsible for the administration of the Colony, are nader an obligation to look over the beads of property owners as a class. They must adopt a higher standpoint and take a broader view--a view involving the widest possible consideration of the interests of the community as a whole. Formerly, as we all know, it was the fashion to censure the Govern ment for an alleged failure to realise this, It used freely to be said that the wellbeing of the Colony suffered owing to the Administra- tion having adopted too lenient a view of the duties of ownership. I do not forget the slate of public feeling in 1896 when people went in fear of their lives. There was not much sympathy for property owners in those days. The Colony was the viction of their capidity. The Government was culpably negligent for not having restrained their greed. They deserved no mercy in the matter of compensation or other. wise. They ought to be made to pay. Anyone who will take the trouble to read the report of the Commission appointed in that year may discover for himself the origin of all subsequent sanitary legislation. There he will find the spokesmen of the community advocating laying upon the property owners the cost of improvements. In the years immediately succeeding, public interest in the matter to some extent waned. The Americac-Spanish war started a tidal wave of prosperity. Plague showed signs of abatement. Property advanced in price. The profits were widely distributed. The short- comings of the Government were almost as widely forgotten. Ia the year of China's tribulation in particular, money poured into the place and no one was very much to blame for anything. But, in 150i, when plague broke out again as bad as before, was there ever such an incompetent Administration ? And then again the usual comment was that our commercial prosperity had been sacrificed to the int rests of the landlords. The deduo- tion to be made from a survey of the past fourteen years seems to be that the degres in which the claims of property owners are to be considered, and the degree in which the Govern- meat are to be blamed for considering them too much, vary in direct ratio to the number of plague cases. The truth of this dedno- tion has received striking confrmation during the last four months. The introduction of this Bill was made the occasion of 80 ou burst of sympathy in the presa with the hardships of property owners. The Commission was held to have championed their cause, and it was proclaimed in flaring. headlines that the Commission had been floated. The chief need in this Council was said to be for determined opposition to the Government, in the threatened interests of property, and these were abandoned, almost in despair, after the debate on the second reading.
And yet three weeks ago when a clause which in its original form was said by property experts to spell ruin, and which was unofficially opposed as introducing a certain burden of doubtful benefit, the representations of the unofficial members were discountenanced, and the Government were arged not to listen to the wail of property owners, Why this change of attitude ยง It can hardly be explained unless we assume it to have been caused by the regrettable increase in plague cases during the period intervening between the introduction of the Bill and the Committee stage. That is the way I explain it, and herein is to be found in miniature the history of sanitary legislation in this Colony. If the Government in their desire to comply with the petition of 1901 erred on the side of severity, it` is only an instance of the tendency of the first - law of motion to obtrade itself into human affairs. And it therefore appears to me to display the ex'stence of rather poor spirit in any section of the commanity which seeks to throw all the blame for defects in the
resulting legislation-defects be it noted which have since revealed themselves- upon the shoulders of the permanent officials.
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