CO129-469 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1921 [9-12] — Page 406

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mentioned should do much towards the prosperity of the locality, in that rice- mills, vegetables-farms, fish-ponds, and even village cottages for settlers coming from across the border, would spring up in a short space of time.

While on this subject, Sir. I should like to mention that certain natives of the New Territories, who owned land and houses at the time when the area was taken over by Great Britain, and who still own such land and houses, have been much perturbed by certain rumours, which may or may not be true, that the Government would shortly enforce in the villages in the Territories certain sec- tions of the Public Health and Building Ordinance requiring the employment of qualified architects and the submission of plans to the Public Works Depart- ment for approval, before any old houses could be reconstructed or new houses built. Most of the people in the villages work from hand to mouth, and cannot afford to pay for what, in the circum- stances, I make bold to call such luxuries. Under the present law, they can build a small house for a few hundred dollars; but if they were compelled to comply with the requirements of the Ordinance, they would never be able to re-construct their present houses, much less to build new ones. I recollect that shortly after the New Territories were taken over a special type of house suit- able for the needs of the natives was devised in order to save them unneces- sary expenses, while enabling them to comply with the law of sanitation. Why not resuscitate this design from the pigeon-hole of the Building Authority's Office, and see whether it could now be introduced? Those who can afford to build mansions, and such new settlers as prefer European building, could be made to comply with the Ordinance; but I res- pectfully submit that the poor villagers, who constitute the majority of the population, should be left with as few legal encumbrances as possible.

LAND RESUMPTION.

There is another matter about which the people of the New Territories have recently spoken to me, and that is that they would not in future be allowed to sell any land without having first obtain- ed the consent of the Government. They cannot understand this proposed law. They say that for certain land, which has been resumed by the Government, they received only one cent. a square foot, while the land could have fetched 5 to 10 cents a square foot, if sold to private individuals. I do not know whe- ther this is true or not, buf if it is, the owners have certainly been unfairly treated. They connect the rumour about the proposed law with this matter of resumption and this attitude of mind is not conducive to the contentment of the people. If there is no foundation in the rumour, I hope that a contradiction will be made as soon as possible.

THE MORTUARY AT SHEK-TONG-TSUI.

I would now deal with the public mortuary at Shek-tong-tsui. For years the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, on account of the unpleasant odour and de- pressing sights, have repeatedly asked the Government to have it removed. The last announcement made by the Govern- ment was that it was difficult to find a suitable site to remove it to, and that as the cost of removal and rebuilding would be rather heavy, the applicants should bear a share of it. Since then many more Chinese buildings have been erected in the neighbourhood, and I sub- mit that, if for no other reasons than that of public health alone, the mortuary should no longer be allowed to remain

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