Section 76, which provides for the recovery of expenses incurred by the Board, and in Council, the words "or to its satisfaction" were added to Section 47.
Of the necessity of having works executed by the Board or under its immediate supervision, there can be no question, the expense in any case being great as there drain will wearly always consist of glazed stone ware in which, the Surveyor General informs us is expensive.
The Sections in that part, with the exception of those having special local application, have been taken from the model Bye Laws of the Local Board of Health of England.
Part II (Sections 58 to 63) deals with buildings erected on sites excavated out of the slope of a hill.
Owing to the steepness of the mountain side on which Hong Kong is built, a great number of houses are built on such sites, the back of the house abutting against the hill-side, the City rising by terraces. It was proposed to oblige all new buildings on these sites to be so constructed as to leave an area of 11 feet between the back of such buildings and the toe of the slope of the Hill.
On account of the extent of valuable ground, which this requirement would have sacrificed, this Section met with the greatest opposition, and I believe momentarily depreciated property here whilst it was urged that the peculiar position and circumstances of the shops in Queen's Road, Jervois and many other streets, rendered as a measure such a sanitary step unnecessary.
Many of these shops have been built for ...
Page 150
Page 151