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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
He said:- Mr. Chairman, the Milk (New Territories) (Amendment) Regulations 1977, the Food Business (New Territories) (Amendment) Regulations 1977 and the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment) Regulations 1977 have recently been approved by the Governor in Council and will come into operation on 1st November 1977. To bring the existing relevant By-laws into line with the amended Regulations, I, as the Vice-Chairman of the Food Hygiene Select Committee, rise on the motion standing in my name:
"That (i) the Milk (Amendment) By-laws 1977 and (ii) the Food Business (Amendment) By-laws 1977 be made under Section 56 of the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, Cap. 132."
The main aims of amending the Milk By-laws are-
(i) to permit imported frozen pasteurized milk to undergo a further heat treatment before sale to ensure its safety for human consumption. This will increase the local supply of milk. The effect of a second heat treatment on the nutritional quality of milk is considered minimal;
(ii) to bring the manufacture and processing of milk beverages or milk drinks under the same control as milk. Since milk beverages or milk drinks contain reconstituted milk as their major ingredient, there is the need to control the hygienic aspects of their production; and
(iii) to allow the sale of cream containing added thickening substances as permitted under item 12 of the First Schedule to the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) Regulations. The making of cakes, pastries, desserts, etc. requires cream of good whipping property and of the right consistency to give a good body to the products. The addition of a small amount of a permitted thickening substance will produce this effect and is permitted in foreign countries.
The Food Business (Amendment) By-laws 1977 are made to ensure that-
(a) the manufacture or processing of milk beverages or milk drinks are carried out in a licensed milk factory; and
(b) the sale of milk beverages or milk drinks will be conducted in a similar manner as milk under a permit by the Urban Council.
I beg to move.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MRS. E. ELLIOTT (in English):- I rise to second the motion proposed by Dr. P. C. WONG.
The question was put.
The motion was carried unanimously.
(6) MRS. E. ELLIOTT moved the following motion (in English):
"That this Council is in favour of withdrawing the mandatory confiscation of goods of unlicensed hawkers, provided that such goods are not prohibited for sale under the ordinance, and that the necessary amendments to the by-laws be introduced."
She said: Mandatory confiscation was introduced in 1972 by this Council because some Councillors thought "there was a need for strict control of hawking, and it was considered that to achieve this, mandatory forfeiture would be an essential proviso."
I personally voted against the measure then, partly because I was sure it would not achieve its purpose of reducing hawkers, and partly because I was sure there would be abuses by means of corruption and discriminatory treatment. I think subsequent history has proved this to be correct.
Even when this unpopular measure was introduced, the then Chairman of the Hawkers Select Committee, and Chairman of the sub-committee investigating the matter, Mr. D. J. R. BLAKER said that it "need not be necessarily permanent." On the same committee were Magistrates or representatives of the Judiciary, who stated that, once such a measure was introduced, it would be difficult to remove it. Just how true this is can be seen by the many futile efforts of some of us, especially on the elected side, to act against the measure. Magistrates are as opposed to mandatory confiscation now, as they were in 1968 when this special sub-committee met. In fact, I believe that they are even more opposed to it now when they see the types of cases taken before them, more often elderly than young people.
The question we need to ask ourselves is, whether this measure has succeeded in its object of reducing the number of hawkers. Government observations show that it has not. The Annual Report, 1976, states "The number of hawkers tends to vary with the state of the economy--the tighter financial situation in 1975 resulted in many more people moving into street trading to supplement the family income."
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