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Victoria should be discontinued, was subsequently employed
}
to draw up a Petition to the Secretary of State for the
Colonies from a number of Chinese who would be affected
by the Law against the Law which I had myself advised, and
that I voted against the Bill on the third reading, is
inaccurate and misleading; because the Bill was first
introduced without my knowledge and advice, and my
interviews with the Honourables the Colonial Secretary and
the Director of Public Works on that Bill did not take
place until some time after its first reading in Council. Although a supporter of the principle of the Bill on the ground that waste of water should be prevented in chinese tenement houses, I was not in favour of a system
of the universal metering of such houses, as I considered that such a system would be impractical and expensive. The reasons for my objections were given by me in one of my interviews with the two above mentioned gentlemen and in the presence of my colleague the Honourable Wei A Yuk, the details of which I need not here enter into.
In another interview, in which Mr. Wei A Yuk was also present, I pointed out to the Honourables the Colonial Secretary and the Director of Public Works that the Chinese inhabitants in this Colony would not avail themselves of the advantage or see the doubtful benefit of the meter system, and that the Government would be incurring a large expenditure in providing for meters which I felt the Chinese would ultimately reject. which the two Honourable gentlemen replied that it was exactly the object they wished to effect, namely that water should be ultimately and entirely cut off from all
Thereupon I asked them why Chinese tenement houses. should the Government seek to effect such an object in
Το
such a roundabout and expensive method and why they should not come boldly forward instead, with an enactment for the supply of water to Chinese tenement houses by
(a)