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have been gained from the practical operation of the recommenda-tions proposed, we can always make such changes in the Report or in our policy as necessary. In the meantime, we need the cooperation of the hawkers themselves if we are to make a success of our attempt to perfect their trading conditions.
In the past we did relax some control of the hawkers, making it less difficult for them to make a legitimate living by hawking, but regret to have to say that experience has shown that the result has been not too successful. Too many people took advantage of the relaxed control that the situation has almost got out of hand.
Before supporting the adoption of the Report on Hawkers with Policy Recommendations as laid before this Council, I would like to congratulate those responsible for the preparation of the Report. It is a fine piece of team work and has made it possible for me to say that I support the motion for its adoption with much pleasure.
In so doing, however, I would like to make two observations.
MR. C. Y. KWAN—I rise to support the motion. With regard to paragraph 96 of the Report I do hope that the excep-tions contemplated by the policy therein set out will not be too restrictive in the cases where public health is not affected, so that the poor people who have a very small capital at their disposal may still be able to make a living by hawking articles other than open or cooked food, in places not being the central parts of the town or busy thoroughfares or in the vicinity of markets.
As to the wall stalls I advocate a most careful survey and consideration of the actual situation before taking any final action in the matter, so far as the existing stalls are concerned. I agree, however, that steps should be taken as soon as possible to prevent the establishment of any new stalls of such kind in the central parts of the town, such as, for example, on the sides of any building in the central districts.
MR. Y. K. KAN :—Mr. Chairman: I have already expressed my agreement to the Hawker Report and the proposals it contains at the Hawkers (Policy) Select Committee, and so I will confine myself to only a few brief remarks.
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Sir, when you laid this report on the table last month, you made these remarks: "The keynote of these proposals is control—sensible and practicable and sympathetic control designed to benefit the hawkers themselves, the market stallholders and the general public, designed in fact to benefit all concerned except those few who seek to turn the present confusion to their own ends and to prey on the hawkers by methods with which this Council can have no sympathy". With those remarks, Sir, I am in complete agreement. Indeed, it is worth noting that although this report, published a month ago, received considerable comments from the Press and certain sections of the public, there has been no suggestion from any quarter that control of hawkers is either unnecessary or undesirable.
The adoption of this report and its recommendations by this Council and the eventual approval thereof by Government will, I think, involve the general overhauling of the existing by-laws and possibly the making of a complete new set of by-laws. I venture to hope that these new by-laws will be clear, simple, concise and that the average person who reads them can understand them and that there is no room for misunderstanding their true meaning.
I would also recommend that so far as it is within the power of this Council to do, every facility should be given to the public in general and the hawkers in particular to obtain copies of these by-laws readily. I say without fear of contradiction that many ordinances and regulations made in this Colony which are of sufficient importance to affect the daily life of the people—to name only a few, the traffic regulations, the Companies Ordinance, the Public Health Ordinances and By-laws, and for that matter, the hawkers by-laws are not always readily available either because they are out of print or else there is a short supply. It is frequently said in Courts that ignorance of law is no excuse. Very often the difficulty is to find the law let alone to understand it. I earnestly recommend that in future there will be published by this Council a hawkers' code, along the same lines as for instance the traffic code, preferably in both English and Chinese, which can be made available to hawkers either free or for a small charge.
I support Mr. R. C. Lee's recommendation that provisions against subletting should be strictly enforced.
It is an open secret that subletting of cooked food stalls is rampant and
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