85
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
I thought the band would not be neces- sary. They assured me this was the best law they had ever read. Amongst other bodies the Chinese Chambers of Com- merce in this Colony, numbering 15, have signed this petition on behalf of 70,400 members. It is very difficult to find out how many people are represented by this petition. I am told to-day that it is 230.000. I dare say
a lesser number might be correct, but think 136,000 is the minimum figure. Also, 103 guilds of masters and workmen, representing 79,800 men, wish to offer this petition to Your Excellency and the members of this Honourable Council, and in presenting it to the Council they beg me to ask you not to listen to evil advisers but to tell you, Sir, that having read this Bill, they find that you, the Governor, holding justice in your hands, have decided to deal with the people of this Colony as though they were your little red babies. It is a very volumin- ous petition.
4
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL-I beg to move the second reading of a Bill in- tituled An Ordinance to amend the law relating to the recovery of possession in certain cases and to restrict the rents of
certain domestic tenements.
The need for some legislation on this subject has been widely recognised. The main objects are to protect tenants from unreasonable increases of their rent and from arbitrary termination of their ten- ancies; in other words, to keep, a roof over the heads of present occupiers and to protect them from excessive exploita- tion. It has been pointed out, Sir, that the Bill will also have another subsidiary effect in that it will tend to check the recent rash speculation in house property which must, if continued, have led to constant increases of rental, resulting in increased cost of living and discouragement of trade. The Bill has been very widely discussed and much help has been derived by the Rents Committee and the Government from the various letters, petitions, reports and other communications received. I would like to say that concrete proposals such as were received on this present Bill are always welcome. I would like to ac- knowledge too, the very great assistance I have received in the drafting of the Bill from the hon. member who represents the Justices of the Peace.
The Government, Sir, are fully alive to the general and theoretical objections to legislation of this kind, the undesir- ability of interfering with the ordinary working of economic laws, and the danger of discouraging new buildings, and that is why - as you yourself have said, Sir-the Government held their hand for a considerable time. But the situa-
tion has become so acute that it has been
decided that some action is necessary. As a matter of fact I do not think the Bill ought to discourage new building because any new buildings finished after the Ordinance comes into operation will be entirely outside its scope.
1
I would like, Sir, if I may-it will not take the policy of the Bill and show how it more than a few minutes to refer again to
proposes to work. The two possible causes, I suppose, of the present short- age of housing accommodation are, first of all, the influx of strangers-refugees- into the Colony and, secondly, the failure on the part of builders and property owners to keep pace with the normal I do not development of the Colony. know how far that second cause affects the result, or whether it is an appreci able cause at all, but I will assume, for the moment, that it is one of the qauses of the present shortage. The situation created by the working of these two causes has been aggravated and made intolerable by two subsidiary factors,— one, the speculation in house property, which tends to drive up rents all the time, and, secondly, the greed of certain landlords. The Bill attacks these two subsidiary factors without which the posi tion created by the two main causes would not have been felt so severely. weapons which it uses are the provision of
a
The two
standard rent and the principle of no ejectment. While the Bill remains in force the standard rent alone will be payable, and as long as the tenant pays that rent, and complies with the other terms of his tenancy, he cannot be turned out. With regard to the influx of strangers from elsewhere, the Bill provides that the present occupiers, who are permanent residents of the Colony, shall not be turned out of their houses to make way for people coming in from outside. It is not possible to attack the other main cause, i.e., the failure of the property owners to keep pace with the regular normal development of the Colony, because, of course, We cannot
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
create houses by Ordinance but we hope we have encouraged new building by providing that any houses built after this Ordinance comes into force shall be entirely unrestricted as to rentals and they will thus get preferential treatment over existing houses. Certain proposed amendments have been published in the Gazette, but the general principle and scheme of the Bill remain unchanged.
Various suggestions have been made for carrying out the object of the Bill which the Rents Committee and the Government have been unable to accept. One was a proposal that the standard rent should be the prewar rent with the addition of a certain percentage. That I have dealt with in paragraph 3 of the Objects and Reasons of the original Bill; I would only repeat that it would be extremely difficult, in fact it would be impossible, to fix one percentage for the whole of the Colony. It would have to vary in districts and for different classes of property.
various
A Rents Board has been suggested, and possibly that would be the fair est method if the Rents Board were omniscient and were permanently sitting and could work sufficiently quick- ly, but there would be great uncertainty, the delay would be great, and there would be great expenditure of public and private time. should very much doubt whether the decisions of that Board could be made so uniform as to be equally fair in all cases. At all events, it is not a scheme which we felt could be produced at such short notice.
465
86
Another proposal which was made in the very able report of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce was that the second subsidiary factor, that of specu- lation in land, should be checked by providing that no rent should be raised for one year after the purchase of house property. That would be a much great- er and longer interference with ordinary economic laws than the interference pro-
in some cases,
track of the
posed by this Bill, because it would last, it would be also very difficult to keep for nearly two years
rents charged because, under the scheme which it is a part of, it is proposed that landlords should still have power to evict in certain circumstances. When a tenant was turn- ed out and a new tenant came in the latter might not know what the late much higher rent. It would be impossible to rent was and he might be charged a keep track of all these rents, and the provision, I have no doubt, would be very largely evaded.
It was suggested, also, that the collection of "shoe money" should be prohibited, but we felt that in a Bill already rather excep tional it would be unwise further to disturb existing practices by prohibiting a custom which, bad as it may be, is certainly widespread. While the Bill re- mains in operation there is no reason why anyone should be forced to pay any excessive "shoe money }; because the weapon in the past for the exaction of "shoe money
has been the threat of eviction, and if a man pays the standard force, that man cannot be turned out. rent, as long as the Bill remains in
I hope the publicity given to the Bill will result in tenants realising this fact.
>
Again, it was proposed that one of the subsidiary factors which I spoke of just Another proposal was that buyers of now, i.e., the greed of certain landlords, property for their own occupation should and chiefly of farmers of house property, be able to obtain possession even should be checked by providing that farm- if Do other accommodation could be ers of house property should be allowed found for the tenants who were ejected. to collect from the tenants below them only I tried to draw up something to meet a certain percentage of what they them this, but found it very difficult in de- selves pay to their superior landlord. tail. I also think it is not necessary. We found that that was unworkable; different The buyer, if he is buying a house to rates would have to be fixed for different live in, is either a resident here already parts of the Colony and different kinds or he is someone from outside. If he of property in the same district. Some is a resident, he has a house in which property would be perfectly safe; I do he is living now and can continue to live. If not suppose that tenants on the Peak he is a stranger, then I would say the or Bonham Strand often abscond with permanent residents have a greater claini out paying their rent, but in other parts to our consideration.
Again, if the pur- of the Colony it is a real danger. chaser is buying in order to acquire business
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.