1939-01-27 — Page 10

THE

"COMMON

COLD."

IS A

PUBLIC DANGER!

Don't regard a cold with lightness as it frequently leads to something much more serious and is so often passed on to the whole family.

For these two reasons your first duty is to keep as fit as possible and your second duty is to have on hand something which will, at the first signs, "nip your cold in the bud." Let

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as forget

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THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 27, 1939

The China Mail

Ninety-Third Year of Publication

3A Wyndham Street, Hong Kong.

Telephone 20022

London Office?

such consumption, or excess con- sumption, until he has made ar- "rangements antisfactory to the water authority for the continued supply of water to any persons lawfully occupying such premises, and, until such arrangements are made, the Water Authority may continue the metered supply of water to the said premises.

Public reading of this regula- tion, rightly or wrongly, was that it marked Government's deter- mination, in view of the earlier rents racket, to prevent landlords from exploiting the provisions of the new Waterworks Ordinance for further squeezing of tenants.

At the time, fears were pressed that landlords would at- tempt to outwit the intention be-

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Notice To Contributors. All communications intended for

publication should be addressed to the Editor, and be accompanied by the Writer's Name and Address,hind the regulation by ignoring

not necessarily for insertion but as

a guarantee of good faith.

Subscription Rates.

3 Months

6 Months

One Year

H.K.$ 9.00

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Postage Abroad Extra

ex-

water bills and causing supply to be disconnected, but It was thought that this possibility was safely covered by the last ten lines, the last three lines in par- ticular, of the Regulation. It was imagined that Government would sue defaulters instead of penalising tenants.

Now, the Water Authority says, "In many instances incon- venience is caused to tenants by the water supply being discon- nected without warning owing to failure of the guarantor to pay the account," and goes on to ad-

Hong Kong, Friday, January 27, 1939. vise tenants to make suitable ar-

ANOTHER SHOCK

FOR TENANTS

rangements with their landlords to ensure that all water accounts are paid promptly.

It seems, in other words, that if a landlord pays his account and decides himself to cut off the supply of tenants who refuse to be victimised, he is liable to pro- secution. But if he blandly re- fuses to pay the account, Govern- ment is prepared, without con- sulting the tenants-in spite of cut the alleged protection of the Em- ten-ergency Regulation-to cut off the supply, on his behalf, until he has forced his tenants to come to his terms.

ac- in

On Wednesday, the rent-paying section of the community was congratulating itself on the tion of the Water Authority prosecuting a landlord who off from the mains supply, ants refusing to pay an arbitrary

surcharge for water.

To-day, however, there has We May Be Wrong been issued an official notice, ap-

;

We may be wrong in suggest- pearing in our advertisement co-ing that this is the intention of the Notice, but we are concerned lumns, quickly stifling any public less with intentions than with thanks that might have been ex- obvious effects. Ostensibly, the Regulation provides continued pressed, and, on first interpreta-supply of water until the land- tion, stultifying completely the lord has satisfied the Water Au- thority that other satisfactory supposed purpose of the emer-arrangements have been made. gency regulation published in the The Notice, in effect, throws back upon the tenant the onus of pro- "Government Gazette" early in tecting his own, supply of water December, holding landlords res-ments" with- landlords.

by making "suitable arrange

ponsible for payment of water ac counts and preventing them from passing to their tenants the res-

As it seems highly unlikely such a notice would have been considered necessary unless the Water Authority had been flood-

ponsibility for installing separed with complaints, a plain indi- ate water meters on each floor. The exact wording of the gulation bears repetition,

says:

cation in itself that "bad land- lords" have been up to their re-tricks, it is pertinent to enquire whether the Emergency Regula- It tion has any meaning at all.

Where until the date of this re- gulation any premises have been" supplied with water, the metered consumption or excess consump- tion of which has been payable by an owner or landlord and recover- ed, in whole or in part, from his tenants by way of rent, such owner or landlord shall, notwithstanding any notices ho may have given to his tenants or the water authority, continue to be deemed the consum- er and shall be Hable for payment of any moneys due to respect of

If the latest notice can be used to compel tenants to pay each month any fancy figure the land- lord elects to add to the rent bill. to meet alleged water charges, it can also be used to compel ten- ants to pay the capital cost of se- parate meterage. The landlord may well reply to any challenge: to his own fixed scale that, if the tenant is disputative, he may in- stal his own, meter.

If this is Government policy, it can hardly be claimed, under pre- sent circumstances, to be a very inspiring example.