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Mr. C. Y. Kwan we found a very worthy successor and one who has devoted the same time and enthusiasm as his predecessor. I myself when coming either very late or leaving very early to these Committee meetings have admired the manner in which our Chairmen, first Mr. Woo and then Mr. Kwan, have been giving up their time to the work of this Committee hour after hour and week after week.
The subsidiary legislation which is now before Council is a very much more bulky document. It is a massive masterpiece of subsidiary legislation, very extensive by-laws, following the modern trend of by-laws to be found in the United Kingdom. It is hoped that these by-laws will indeed come into effect more or less at the same time as the Legislature accepts the Bill—always provided of course that they do accept it.
The only other feature perhaps that I would like to stress is that this Ordinance is designed to be a flexible Ordinance that will not become obsolete in a matter of a few years like so many of its predecessors. It uses the expression "Authority" throughout, not "Council", so that the Authority for certain purposes may indeed not be the Urban Council, it may be some other authority. And in particular this will enable rural urban development in due time. There are undoubtedly towns springing up in the New Territories today that will be entitled to have their own local council, Urban District Council perhaps, in due course and by a very short direction of the Governor-in-Council it would be possible in fact to say that for the purpose of the Yuen Long district area, the "Authority" under the Ordinance will be the Yuen Long District Council. I take that of course only as an example of the extreme flexibility of this Ordinance and the fact that we have recommended legislation not only for the present, but for the future. And speaking as a member of, as one of the Reform Club elected members of this Council, I say we particularly welcome this as legislation that does both cope with the requirements of the present and looks forward into the future, looks forward into the constitutional development of the Colony in the future, and whilst not in any way committing the Government to anything, it leaves the door wide open to any steps which it might be thought fit in due course to take.
On behalf of my colleagues and myself I heartily support the resolution which is before Council today.
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DR. P. F. Woo:-The completion of this draft Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance is indeed one of the greatest achievements in the history of the Urban Council. It has taken 21 years to finish and has passed through the hands of 3 Chairmen, and it is not until you, Mr. Chairman, have presided in this Council that this draft is eventually finalized. This draft will replace the outmoded, verbose and voluminous Ordinance which dated as far back as 1909. Although the Old Ordinance has been revised many times, it is in many ways impractical and obsolete. In its new form, however, it is neoteric and apropos, and non-legal members like myself will find it easily comprehensible. This draft deals only with the Ordinance itself, and we must hope that at a future date, with the enactment of by-laws, it will do away with all the formalities and red-tape which have never been welcomed by the general public.
As this draft Ordinance is largely the work of members who belong to the legal profession, I would like to pay tribute to them and all those who have helped in producing such a masterpiece, in particular to Mr. C. Y. Kwan, the Chairman of the Law Revision Select Committee, who being in this Committee continuously for 2 years is in fact the one mainly responsible for this draft. Credit should go to Mr. P. C. Woo, Mr. Kwan's predecessor who started the ball rolling. Tribute must also be paid to Mr. Bodilly, Crown Counsel, the two Assistant Directors of Urban Services, Mr. Paul Tsui and Mr. Wilson who devoted very much of their time in compiling and drafting the new Ordinance.
With these few remarks, Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in supporting your motion.
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN :-Mr. Chairman; at last, after 2 years of solid work, Council has before it the Chairman's motion recommending to Government new legislation as embodied in the draft Public Health & Urban Services Ordinance.
The passage of this Bill will be a landmark in the history of Hong Kong. In the past ten years, we have witnessed a tremendous population growth; a million refugees have crossed our borders, and they are still coming in! These refugees have strained to the limit our public health and urban services. In drafting modern legislation applicable to conditions as they exist in Hong Kong, the ingenuity and imagination of the Law Revision Select Committee has been taxed to the utmost.
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