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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS- ANNUAL.
LEGISLATION.
Forty Ordinances were passed during the year, of which ten were for the Naturalisation of Chinese.
The Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance was amended so as to enable resumption for any "public purpose."
Three had special reference to the New Territory. One was to exempt the Territory from the operation of certain Ordinances not considered applicable to it. A second was to give power to divide the New Territory into districts and sub-districts, to appoint committees of districts and sub-districts, make rules for the good order, health, and general good government of the Territory, for the constitution of local tribunals in districts and sub-districts, for the hearing and deciding of petty civil and criminal cases, and the levying of contributions on the inhabitants where extra crime requires the provision of extra police. The local tribunals under this Ordinance have not been established.
The third Ordinance gives power to make rules for the farming out for revenue purposes of the right to sell or otherwise deal in any commodity, and for the collection of rent and taxes. Opium is the only commodity that has been dealt with under this Ordinance.
An important sanitary measure was passed in the Insanitary Properties Ordinance, which has for its object the improvement of light and ventilation in existing domestic buildings, and of open spaces in rear of them, and the provision of larger open spaces in rear of new buildings, and the sanitary maintenance of private streets and lanes.
The provisions of the Ordinance still fall short of similar requirements in England, but are as exacting as perhaps could be imposed without involving questions of compensation for loss of space in a city where land is extraordinarily valuable. Ordinances were passed to consolidate and amend the law relating to criminal procedure, merchant shipping, and prisons, and an important amendment of the Protection of Women and Girls Ordinance was passed, giving larger powers of dealing with brothels and disorderly houses, and making it penal to permit a woman suffering from contagious disease to remain in a brothel.
The provisions of this Ordinance have already had a salutary effect.
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