C
246
-tervening space between the 2 cubicles clearly comes within the definition of a "room" contained in Section 6(51) of the said Ordinance which runs as follows:-
"Room" includes any subdivision of any storey of a domestic building, other than a room used as a drying-room store-room or pantry.
(b). That intermediate space therefore being a "room" is caught by Section 154(1) of the said Ordinance which enacts that "no room which is not provided with a window &c. may be maintained in any storey of any domestic building".
(c). The intermediate space in question cannot therefore under the existing law be maintained in any building, quite apart from the question of whether it is used for sleeping purposes or not.
(d). Therefore the partitions forming the legal cubicles in front and in the rear must be removed because they at the same time form an illegal space in the centre of the house.
7. The net result therefore is that under the existing law practically no cubicles or partitions whatever are legal in Chinese dwellings.
8. Your Petitioners desire to draw Your Excellency's attention to the great hardship and injustice of such a law.
9. The privacy of the Chinese woman is as dear to her as it is to the European woman; the law as it stands at present makes all privacy in Chinese dwellings impossible, and the result of that law must be that thousands of Chinese families will leave the Colony and seek a habitation elsewhere.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly beg that Your Excellency will be so good as to look into the matter and amend the law so as to give Your Petitioners relief from the hardships which now threaten them.
Dated 6th August, 1908.
(Here follow 16 signatures.)
))
C
246
-tervening space between the 2 cubicles clearly comes within the definition of a "room" contained in Section 6 (51) of the said Ordinance which runs as follows:-
"Room" includes any subdivision of any storey of a
domestic building, other than a room used as a dry- ing-room store-room or pantry.
(b). That intermediate space therefore being a "room" is caught by Section 154 (1) of the said Ordinance which enacts that "no room which is not provided with a window &c. may be maintained in any storey of any domestic building".
(c). The intermediate space in question cannot therefore under the existing law be maintained in any building, quite apart from the question of whether it is used for sleep- ing purposes or not.
(d). Therefore the partitions forming the legal cubicles in front and in the rear must be removed because they at the same time form an illegal space in the centre of the house.
7. The net result therefore is that under the
existing law practically no cubicles or partitions whatever are
legal in Chinese dwellings.
8. Your Petitioners desire to draw Your Excellency's '
attention to the great hardship and injustice of such a law.
9. The privacy of the Chinese woman is as dear to
her as it is to the European woman; the law as it stands at
present makes all privacy in Chinese dwellings impossible, and
the result of that law must be that thousands of Chinese
families will leave the Colony and seek a habitation elsewhere.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly beg that Your Excellency will be so good as to look into the matter and amend the law so as to give Your Eetitioners relief from the hardships which now threaten them.
Dated 6th. August, 1908.
(Here follow 16 signatures.)
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.