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The Santay Commissioner.
Yerandahs
Esternal air."
Finance.
The Public Health Act, 1875, and which has been found to work so satisfactorily that it has been generally adopted in municipal Acts since that date, be resorted to; and that, unless the Government and the owner concur upon a single arbitrator, they shall each appoint one, and the two arbitrators shall in case of need choose an umpire to finally decide any point whereon they differ.
8. Another important matter of principle is the question of the expediency of giving to one officer of the Sanitary Board-the proposed Sanitary Commis- sioner-such large and arbitrary powers as the Bill contains.
With an ideal man, whose successors at least could not be assured, a despotic system may be the most convenient, as otherwise it is certainly the worst. Your petitioners urge that all important discretionary matters whereof time would permit a reference to the Board may be so referred, and that the functions of the Commissioner, if such an officer is to be appointed, may be exercised under the control of the Board, and restricted to points of detail and routine. Further, as it is intended that the Commissioner shall be a medical man, your petitioners submit that he should at any rate be relieved from all such work as specially falls within the province of the civil engineer and architect.
9. As to the proposed abolition of verandahs over public streets, your petitioners most respectfully submit that the proper use of the Government's right, which is the public right, would be to encourage the erection of such verandahs wherever the width of the street suffices. Verandalis not only protect passengers from sun and rain, an invaluable boon in a tropical climate, but they enable windows to be kept open in the bad weather which often prevails during our hot season, they render practicable larger windows than could otherwise be used, and they provide a place where women and children may obtain the benefit of the open air with privacy. Your petitioners suggest that in streets from thirty to fifty feet wide verandahs should be allowed, and that in streets of greater width they should be compulsory. It may be assumed that few owners would sacrifice their own land to build verandahs, and such verandahs even if built would not protect the footpath.
10. As to the definition of "external air" in section 149 (3) of the Bill, your petitioners beg to point out that it would reader illegal the buildings mentioned in the sixth paragraph of this petition as being also illegal under section 170 of the Bill, the new Queen's and Prince's Buildings, most of the principal European residences and offices in the colony, and the improved Chinese dwellings designed by the Director of Public Works and approved by Messrs. Chadwick and Simpson who lately visited Hongkong as sanitary experts. Your petitioners suggest that the said definition be altered so as to include, as they submit it reasonably should, any open space whereon the owner cannot build.
11. As to the large sum required for the purpose of compensation, your petitioners think that this should be raised, as it is in similar cases in England, by loan repayable in a term of years. In view of the present uncertain state of the Bill your petitioners hesitate to name the amount or conditions of such a loan, and they suggest that a committee of financiers be appointed to consider the matter. Many owners would doubtless be prepared to carry out the requisite work at their own cost, receiving part of their compensation in the form of reduced crown rents, prolonged leases and the like. Your petitioners submit that a definite and comprehensive scheme of the improvements contemplated by the Bill
should be formulated, that the work should be spread over a period of years, and that a beginning should be made as soon as possible with some of the oldest properties in the central districts.
and architects report.
12. Messrs. Danby, Denison Ram and Gibbs, Leigh and Orange, and engineer Palmer and Turner, civil engineers and architects of this colony, have, at the request of your petitioners, prepared a full technical report upon the Bill. This report is enclosed. Its details are unnecessary to repeat. It reveals in the Bill the hand of the novice in building matters, and of one inappreciative of the rights of property. It shows that some provisions, taken bodily from the English statute book, are practical and well drawn. It shews that others have been so altered in the taking as further instances to be deprived of their original value. And it exemplifies by many the circumstance that throughout the Bill (with the single exception aforesaid) all the careful provisions of the English Acts for compensation wherever private rights are infringed have been scrupulously omitted.
Your petitioners therefore pray that Your Excellency may be pleased Part. to direct that the Bill in its present form be withdrawn from the further consideration of the Legislative Council, and that it be so amended as to comprise the principles aforesaid, and especially to provide compensation when private and vested rights are injuriously affected for the public benefit.
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