CO129-468 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1921 [6-8] — Page 475

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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved to add the following paragraph after para. (e) in sub-clause 1 of Clause 4:

(f.) The lessor bona fide requires possession of the domestic tene- ment in order to pull down such domestic tenement or in order to reconstruct such domestic tene- ment to such an extent as to make such domestic tenement a new building within the meaning of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903, and shall have given the tenant three months' notice to quit.

Subsequent amendments, and addi- tioual clauses, proposed by the ATTORNEY- GENERAL, were adopted without discussion.

On the Council resuming,

H.E. THE GOVERNOR-In this case, for the purposes of Rule 48 of the Standing Rules and Orders, I declare that an emergency exists, and that in my opinion it is desirable in the public interest that Rules 42 and 47 be suspended, so as to enable the bill to be carried through its remaining stages at this sitting of the Council. The grounds for this declara- tion are that, as the object of the bill is to protect the tenants of domestic tene ments from unreasonable increase in rental and from arbitrary termination of their tenancies, and as rents have been and are being raised unreasonably, and as attempts have been and are being made to eject tenants who are unwilling or are unable to pay such increased rents, it is desirable to pass the bill immedi- ately so as to afford relief to as many as possible of the class which the bill pro- poses to protect.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the suspension of the Standing Orders was agreed to.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL then moved the third reading of the Bill.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was passed.

The Adjournment

HIS EXCELLENCY-The remaining busi- ness on the agenda we do not propose to take. In any case I fear these Bills will not be ready this week. I propose, there- fore, that we should adjourn sine die. I should like, before we go, to express my thanks to members of the Committee and more especially, if I may say so, to the Attorney-General and his learned col- league, the Hon. Mr. Pollock, for the

immense trouble they have taken in pro- ducing this Bill, which I trust will be successful in attaining the object for which it was devised.

FINANCE COMMITTEE.

A meeting of the Finance Committee was afterwards held, the COLONIAL SECRETARY presiding :-

The Gap Rock Cable

The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of $19,616 in aid of the vote Public Works, Recurrent, Communi- cations, (8) Maintenance of telephones including all cables.

THE CHAIRMAN-This sum of $19,616 is the amount required for repairing the cable to Gap Rock. We took advantage of the presence of the cable ship Patrol in the waters of the Colony to employ her in recovering the cable and finding out what was wrong. Fortunately the cable was recovered in about two days after the ship actually got to work and it was found that the cable had been clean cut across. By whom and how it was done was not clear. It may have been by a fishing boat recovering her anchor. It required half a mile of large cable and nearly 2 miles of smaller cable to effect the necessary repairs. The hire of the ship cost £800, the half mile of large cable £338, the rest of the cable £1,098 and material £216-a total of £2,452, of which $19,616 is the equival- ent in local currency, ful but rather expensive job.

It was a success-

Approved.

Kowloon Telephone Wires The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of $6,500 in aid of the vote Public Works, Recurrent, Kowloon, Com- munications, (27), Maintenance of Tele- phones.

is to lay

THE CHAIRMAN-This sum underground a number of telephone wires in Kowloon. The poles are carrying so many wires between Kowloon and Hung- hom that in a typhoon it is thought they may come down. So having a cable in stock we decided on laying these cables underground. It involved a cost of $3,900 to the Public Works Department and $2,600 to the railway. For simpli- city it was decided to take a single vote and charge the whole to Public Works Recurrent.

Approved.