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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI, Chairman of the Hawkers Select Committee, moved the following motion:-
"THAT the Hawker (Amendment) By-laws, 1961, be made under section 83 of the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, No. 30 of 1960."
He said:
Mr. Chairman, I rise to move the motion which stands in my name. It is a common fault of all of us, and hawkers are no exception, that little or no attention is paid to the formalities of the law until they are enforced against us.
As a result of the ever-increasing congestion in the Central District, we have recently started to enforce the law in respect to newspaper hawker racks. This has caused the newspaper hawkers, through their representatives, to put forward a number of suggestions for variations to the approved model rack, particularly in respect to protection from weather conditions. These suggestions are reasonable and the proposed amendments to the By-laws seek to meet the objections to the present rack that have been put forward.
THE DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL WELFARE seconded.
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, I would like to support the motion and to take this opportunity to congratulate the Department for the prompt action which they took in following up the suggestions made by the newspaper hawkers group concerned. I have been following what has been happening to their suggestion and I do know for a fact that the Department did take it up immediately. So I am very happy to support the motion which has been tabled to-day.
The question was put.
The motion was carried.
MR. CHAN SHU-WOON, Chairman of the Cemeteries, Crematoria and Funeral Parlours Select Committee, moved the following motion:-
"RESOLVED under By-law 10(1) of the Public Cemeteries By-laws, 1960, that the Director of Urban Services be empowered to exhume and remove the human remains of persons from the graves specified in the following public cemeteries and to dispose of the same by burial, cremation or otherwise as the Director may think fit.
CemeterySectionYear of Burial (1) Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, Fanling, New Territories.All graves in Sections A and B and including those in private lots.1955. (2) Sandy Ridge Cemetery, Lo Wu, New Territories.All graves including those in private lots.1955. (3) Sandy Ridge (Urn) Cemetery, Lo Wu, New Territories.All graves in the Government Urn Section.1959. (4) Prison Cemetery at Stanley.All graves in coffin section.1955.He said:
Mr. Chairman, as the Chairman of the Select Committee, I formally move the motion standing in my name. As this exhumation is a normal routine procedure, I have no further information or explanation to add.
DR. R. H. S. LEE:- Mr. Chairman, this is one of those statutory motions which empower the Director of Urban Services to carry out a general exhumation programme for the year 1961-62. Members are fully aware that this is a routine measure each year in order to provide spaces for future burials in the cemeteries concerned. If this motion is passed, notice of the intended exhumation will be published in the Government Gazette in the usual way and also in the press so that any person who wishes to arrange for private exhumation or removal of the remains may do so, because in a place like Hong Kong, this reservation is very relevant. For this reason, Mr. Chairman, I beg to second.
MR. A DE O SALES:- Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that the occasion might be taken perhaps to ask your Department whether in effect the progress which has been made in the formation of the various sites concerning another cemetery has been reported to this Council through the relevant Select Committee. I am concerned that, notwithstanding the increasing shortage of burial plots in Hong Kong and the need for sites to be used over and over again in Government cemeteries by exhumation, yet progress in what can well be termed the very last public cemetery given over to the various religious groups has not been made with the despatch which the Council had been led to believe would be the case at the time this project was made known to us. May I, Mr. Chairman, with these remarks in support of this motion, commend the similar matter to your attention?
CHAIRMAN:- I will be glad to look into the matter and let members of Council have a paper on it.
MR. SALES:- Thank you.
The question was put.
The motion was carried.
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