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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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In Hong Kong a general reassessment now takes place annually and owners obtain relief when rents are reduced much more quickly than elsewhere. In Britain, for instance, re-assessments are quinquennial. At the moment the rents of Chinese tenement property in Hong Kong are falling, partly owing to overbuilding, and to some extent as a result of trade depression. Owners there- fore have to reduce rents or risk losing their tenants. To assess each floor separately and consequently to refund when vacancies occur would merely encourage landlords to remove the occupants of a partially occupied floor and crowd the remaining ones. They would in fact employ in respect of floors the tactics which the Honourable Member mentions in respect of whole houses.
The owner who is prepared to meet altered conditions and reduce rents, accordingly obtains due relief as I have explained at the next annual assessment where full consideration of his case will be given. The existing law permits an allowance of up to 20 per cent. on the valuation, a figure ample to cover normal periods of vacancy in all cases where several tenancies are included in one. assessment. The practice is to grant 62 per cent. in the first instance and a further 5 to 10 per cent. when justified. In some cases the Assessor allows the full 20 per cent. when circumstances in his opinion justify the concession. It is therefore considered that the existing system is equitable and generous and that no undue hardships on property owners are involved. (Applause).
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THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.—I propose
take the criticisms of Honourable Members, in so far as they have not already been met, in the order in which they were presented.
The first item in the speech of the Honourable Senior Unofficial Member that falls to me is the staff of the legal depart- ments. I say again that even without the late Mr. Agassiz, whose death we all so deeply deplore, there should be sufficient legal officers in the Colony next year to keep all the departments fully manned and I now add that we propose to recruit a new officer in Mr. Agassiz' place which will give a surplus. In addition it must be remembered that there are a number of Cadet Officers with legal qualifications who can from time to time be spared to assist the regular legal Staff. One is doing so now. As regards future retire- ments, Government cannot agree that it is necessary to recruit new officers a year in advance. Apart from the reflection which this seems to cast on the competence of the experienced staff who will he left behind and can supply local knowledge, the idea that new officers must have a year's trial run is a costly novelty which the Colonial Office is hardly likely to accept. I am aware that this is the course adopted in the case of Cadet Officers but there are special reasons in that a Cadet recruit must devote his whole time for two years to acquiring the requisite knowledge of Chinese. As for periodical shortages of staff and overtime, these fall to the lot of
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