i
240
You
least one-tenth of the floor area, the glazed area of the
window being equal to one-half of its total area.
It is found that the windows of existing
Chinese houses cannot in the majority of cases be so increased
in size as to measure in glazed area one-tenth of the floor
area of the rooms they serve.
The provisions of Section 19 have been
unanimously recommended by the Sanitary Board and the repeal
effected by Section 13 was recommended by the Board with one
dissentient voice only. These amendments meet with the approval
of the Principal Civil Medical Officer and other expert
advisers of the Government, and I consider that they supply a
satisfactory solution of a difficult problem.
12.
In the 5th. paragraph of Sir Henry Blake's
13879 Despatch No. 116 of the 10th. of march it was stated that
under the universal application of the scale upon which domes-
tic buildings might be inhabited provided in Section 46 of
Ordinance 1 of 1903 minus the proviso to that Section, 50,000
persons would be displaced and that there were not sufficient
empty houses for them to go to.
More detailed enquiries covering empty
floors as well as entirely empty houses made in July last
showed that there was sufficient vacant accommodation for
25,000 persons in Victoria and Kowloon. This fact taken in
conjunction with the certainty that building Companies will
Provide more accommodation as the law against overcrowding is
gradually enforced justifies the adoption of the scale now
proposed (1.e. 1 adult to every 50 Square Feet of floor area
and 550 Cubic Feet of air space). There remains, therefore, no
reason