Qu
2
Appendix A.
commuting I use the word in the American sense. Town planning such as has been practised here in roughly the past thirty years, is not above criticism when present day methods are taken into account, but of the whole it has been well done particularly in view of the very rapid growth of out-lying districts. For example, domestic properties erected in the northen end of Nathan Road area are an improvement on the previously established type of tenement and that improvement holds from there to Cheung Sha Wan, to Sham- suipo and finally finishing with the reclamation development at Wanchai. Here one does not have the ideal Chinese tenement but economically a reasonable building, fire-proof, well ventilated and with modern sanitation, helped by wide streets and a good angle of light.
To
5.
To fulfil a plan to provide the many small "Lungs" against the few big "Lungs", I suggest that legislation be con- sidered whereby property owners be given twenty years to provide each domestic property with its full open space or yard area as required by the latest Building Ordinance then in force. get such a Bill through, I do not think there will be much or serious opposition from the vested interests. It would be twenty years before the requirements become fully operative and there is, therefore,
sufficient time to recoup expenditure even were there exchanges of property at the time such a Bill became law.
6.
Although it does not come within the scope of this short memorandum there are one or two points in regard to the type of Chinese tenement which I would like to record. I think improve- ments might be considered to the main stairways to these tenements, these I think should be more on the principle of the Soots tene- ments where it is usual to have from the street on which the property fronts an entry through a covered way or "close" with the stairway at the rear in a projected wing. In this projecting wing, I, also, suggest there might be embodied a kitchen and a W.C. with shower. The removal of verandah columns and the use of well projected balconies is another point on which improvement could be made. The provision of through scavenging lanes in width to take sanitary oarts should not be lost sight of.
13th January, 1947.
(Signed) R.S.W. Paterson.
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