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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
Regulations made thereunder in order to improve the administration of this measure and remove injustice. At all events, I hope Govern- ment will give an assurance that the actual working of this law will be carefully watched and that representations from those affected as to the result of such working will receive the attention and con- sideration of Government.
Sir, it is my submission that the provisions of this Bill go beyond the accepted principles of Price Control, that they go beyond what is necessary to secure that existing permanent residents, and those hereafter to be accepted as such by the Hotels, will be subjected only to approved charges and rates, and that they constitute a legis- lative sanction for compelling Hotels to undertake or continue a kind of boarding house business irrespective of the wishes of their owners. For these reasons, I shall vote against the Bill.
Hox. CHAU TSUN-NIN:-Sir, as Chairman of the Hotel Rates Advisory Committee, I should like, with Your Excellency's permis- sion, to refer briefly to some features of the report which has led to the introduction of the Bill now before this honourable Council.
First of all, I wish to make it clear that the Committee, in recommending control of the rates charged for accommodation in hotels, was aware that it is against the principle of free trading— as indeed is any form of control; but they felt justified in their recommendation in view of the unprecedented shortage of housing in Hong Kong, and they regarded the proposal as being in line with the objects of the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance.
Since the publication of the Committee's report, there has been criticism in the Press of the recommendation that the Paramount and Cathay Hotels should be exempted from control. That recom- mendation was based on cogent reasons. These two hotels were established after the Pacific War-one in an extensively renovated building, and the other in a much rehabilitated building. Their capital expenditure, including the outlay on costly furniture and air-conditioning, was very high and their accommodation is com- paratively limited, so that the Committee felt that even if their rates were controlled they would have to be high to give a reasonable return on the capital invested. Thus any rates that might be com- puted would be beyond the means of the ordinary resident. In other words, these two hotels cater only for those who can afford to pay rates higher than those charged by other and larger hotels. In these circumstances, and on the analogy that new buildings are exempted by law from rent control, I submit that it is not illogical to exempt those two comparatively small hotels.
I now come to a rather knotty problem-the reservation of a prescribed percentage of accommodation in hotels for permanent residents. This problem received the very careful and anxious con- sideration of the Committee. They realised that the point did not come within their terms of reference; but as it is a point intimately bound up with the important problem on which they were charged
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