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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

ment of Progress and Policy. After it has been considered and approved by this Council, it will be forwarded to Government for consideration, with a view to its presentation to the Legislative Council for enactment into law, if passed. Of course, before the proposed Bill becomes law the public will, in accordance with the normal procedure, have an opportunity of studying its contents and expressing its view thereon. The proposed new ordinance is designed to consolidate the law now contained in several ordinances namely, the Advertisement Regulations Ordinance, the Boarding House Ordinance, the Adulterated Food and Drug Ordinance, the Public Health (Sanitation) Ordinance, the Public Health (Food) Ordinance, the Pleasure Grounds and Bathing Places Ordinance and the Hawkers Ordinance.

It will be appreciated that in order to carry out the provisions of the proposed ordinance, various by-laws will have to be made for the different subject matters provided by the ordinance. The Committee has already finalized or more or less finalized the drafts of no less than 14 sets of such by-laws, and has given its preliminary consideration to another 4 sets, but there are still others yet to be prepared and considered. All these by-laws will in due course be presented to this Council for consideration and approval,

The Committee in its endeavour to bring the legislation up to date so as to be in keeping with the present day standard of public health prevailing in countries, such as the United Kingdom, where a clean bill of public health is well and efficiently maintained, has not lost sight of those circumstances which are peculiar to Hong Kong, and such special circumstances have been and will continue to be taken into account by the Committee as far as possible, having regard to the primary object of the proposed new legislation, which is to safeguard and improve public health.

As chairman of the Committee I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge in public the most valuable services rendered by Mr. Bodilly, Crown Counsel, who has been co-opted from the Attorney General's Department as a member of the Committee, and who has most patiently, painstakingly and ably shouldered the heavy and arduous task of drafting the proposed legislation for us. The Committee has benefitted immeasurably from his legal experience and advice. Special mention is also due to Mr. Paul Tsui, the Assistant Director of Urban Services, who has done much to facilitate the work of the Committee ever

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since the formation of the Committee. (Hear Hear). The Committee owes much to the health staff for their suggestions and advice on all health matters which have to be dealt with by the proposed new legislation.

Lastly, but not least, I wish to associate myself with the tribute paid by my colleague to the work of Mr. Holmes, whose valuable services on this Council are well known by us all.

With the above remarks, Sir, I have much pleasure in supporting your motion. (Applause).

MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN :--Mr. Chairman, I endorse the Council's main aims for 1958 as set forth in your Progress & Policy Statement.

I am glad to see that this Council will pursue a positive programme of health education measures. This is closely tied up with Council's aim to have one Health Inspector for every 1,200 tenement floors. I had previously expressed my dissatisfaction to your two predecessors, Mr. Chairman, at the system of recruitment and training of health inspectors. You said in your Statement that this question is under review; I sincerely hope that arising out of such review, suitable action will be taken to improve the system.

Let us hope too that as health education proceeds apace, the time will come when our side streets will not be littered with so much rubbish. The Council, on the one hand, seeks the cooperation of the public in not having so much rubbish thrown in the streets. Quite often, direct hits are scored on passersby when rubbish is thrown from roof-tops and upper-storey flats, and this is not the type of marksmanship which our citizens and our tourists can appreciate. The public, on the other hand, expects more efficient city cleansing services. Our scavenging personnel is expanding yearly at such a rate that it may be time for our Scavenging Select Committee to look more deeply into the prospects of mechanization of our street cleansing services.

Rather than proceed with the next portion of my prepared speech, I think it would be appropriate for me to make a few relevant remarks on some of the speeches that have been given before me.

I have quite a number of points on which I do agree

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