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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
that his staff will exercise the powers vested under this Ordinance and the By-laws in a reasonable manner, and in accordance with policy laid down by Council and its Select Committees?"
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
"This question refers to recent legislation, for which the Urban Council is the authority, and its enforcement by members of the Urban Services Department.
In reply to both parts of your question, I am happy to give you the firm assurances you seek.
Members are only too well aware of the necessity for the various by-laws which they have approved and for which various maximum penalties have been fixed. I do not need to say that it would be most unusual, indeed, if the Courts were to impose the maximum sentences in any but exceptionally bad cases, and I do not propose to elaborate on the particular by-laws which were singled out for attention by the article in question. But I should like to take this opportunity to make more generally known to the public than would appear to be the case at present that the law and by-laws which have recently come under fire were produced only after years of most careful consideration by the highly qualified Law Revision Select Committee of this Council. This Committee in its deliberations not only revised, where necessary, the old laws but also studied and compared similar laws in other countries, in an effort to devise suitable modern and practical legislation for the urban area. The result, with the assistance of the Legal Department, has been a set of law and by-laws which, when one bears in mind the rather special conditions which prevail in the Colony, bears comparison with those of cities of similar size anywhere in the world.
There is certainly no intention of the staff of the Urban Services Department exercising their powers under the law in any but a reasonable and practical manner in accordance with the policy laid down by the Urban Council and its Select Committees, and I shall ensure that this matter is brought home fully to the staff of the department.
I think that a very good example of what Council and the department is trying to achieve may be found in a recent letter written by me, after consultation with the Chairman of the relevant Select Committee, to put at rest the minds
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of certain hawkers who also were alarmed at Council's apparent intentions. In this letter, I wrote, inter alia, as follows:
'It is, however, essential, if hawking is to be allowed to continue in Hong Kong to bring the various types of hawker stalls up to standard throughout the Colony. If you can impress this upon the members of your Association and get them to accept the fact that all the Council is seeking is their co-operation, with a view mainly to eliminating the oversize stalls and dirty conditions, thus improving the standards of hygiene, then there is no reason for any hawker to fear the consequences of any measure by Council to bring them under control. Should, however, the odd individual hawker persistently fail and refuse to maintain that standard, then he will have only himself to blame for any action taken against him.'
What applies to hawkers applies also to other large sections of the community. If we can gain the co-operation of the inhabitants of the urban area, many problems will resolve themselves and there will be little or no need for resort to the law. And as I have already stated, there is no intention whatsoever of departmental staff exercising their powers in any but a reasonable and practical manner."
MR. BERNACCHI :-Mr. Chairman, may I ask a supplementary-
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, I was just going to ask Question No. 2.
MR. BERNACCHI:-In view of the fact that very conveniently in the text, Sir, you have quoted from a letter of the Council's to a particular section of the community, would you be prepared, if desired, that the whole text be made available for publication, in case that part of the text may give a wrong impression in a matter which has itself received some publicity?
CHAIRMAN: -Certainly.
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:
"Many of us who live here take pride in the fact that in the Far East, Hong Kong is second to none in upholding the 'rule of law' as fundamental to our way of life; on many occasions in the past, I have stressed to the Chairman the
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