Hong Kong Builder
THE HONG KONG & CHINA BRANCH OF THE CHARTERED SURVEYORS' INSTITUTION
We feel very strongly regarding the need for an Architects' Association in Hong Kong yet for some rea- son or other every attempt to form such an association in the past has proved abortive.
The lack of a supervisory organization has resulted in abuses of regulations and in a laxity of interpretation of authority which has manifested itself in many ways, not the least of them being the forms of jerry-building which has been permitted. In the past few years this type of construction work has cluttered up the Colony with the strangest collection of unprepossessing struc- tures imaginable, but worst still, the progress of the erection of these edifices has been punctuated with a number of unfortunate occurrences which could have been prevented were an Architects' Association function- ing for the benefit of its members and for the protection of the public.
This difficulty in forming an Architects' Association seems to be a rather curious phenomenon as there are a number of institutions in Hong Kong which guard the traditions and guide the ethics of their respective pro- fessions. The Hong Kong Branch of the Chartered Sur- veyors' Institution, for instance, is one of them.
The Hong Kong & China Branch of the Chartered Surveyors' Institution was the outcome of a dinner to the Local Members on 21st January, 1929. and the first General Meeting was held on 17th June, 1929, with Mr. Geo. W. Grey as Chairman, Mr. A. E. Wright, then the Building Authority, Vice Chairman, the Executive Com- mittee being Mr. A. G. W. Tickle and Mr. W. A. Cornell, with Lt. J. B. Marks, R.E., as Honorary Secretary.
The objects in forming the branch were:- ra To bring members and residents practising in
Hong Kong and China into closer touch. (b) To assist the Home Council in ascertaining the
wants and wishes of local members.
(e) To assist the Council in London in connection with the admission of new members from Hong Kong and China, and to provide them with ad- ditional means of furthering the interests of the Institution.
(d) To provide machinery for holding local exam- inations and occasional meetings designed for generally increasing the interest of all classes of members in the welfare of the Institution. The profession of a Surveyor is defined in the Royal Charter of The Chartered Surveyors' Institution as "The art of determining the value of all descriptions of landed, mineral and house property, and of the various interests therein; the practice of managing and developing estates; and the science of admeasuring and delineating the physical features of the earth, and of measuring and estimating artificers' work.”
Commenting upon the diversity of the surveyor's profession, His Royal Highness the Duke of York, when attending the Diamond Jubilee Banquet of The Chartered Surveyors' Institution in 1928, said: "The surveyor touches the ordinary life of the public at innumerable points. Upon those who are concerned with the manage- ment of the great country estates, we rely to a large extent for the production of our food and timber. Our housing, our trade and commerce, depend in many res- pects upon the advice of the surveyor trained in the difficult art of valuation; in town planning and in the development of land for building, in matters of sanita-
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tion, taxation, rating, and the management of mineral property, the surveyor is brought into contact with our daily lives. He is, in fact, with us almost from our cradles to our graves. Nor must I fail to mention the building surveyor and the quantity surveyor, the former the physician of bricks and mortar. the latter, as it were, the chemist who analyses in minutest detail the component parts of the structure that is to arise."
The Headquarters of the Institution are at 12 Great George Street, Westminster; its total membership being given in the list of Members for 1941 as:
Honorary Members
Fellows
Colonial Fellows
Professional Associates Associates
Probationers
Students
Women House Property Managers
TOTAL.
39 3,292
124
4,406
78
971
534
73
9.517
and it has as its Patron, His Majesty The King.
The Local Membership consists of:- Chairman: J. Ring. B.Sc. (Eng.)., F.S.I., etc. Vive Chairman: Geo. W. Grey, F.S.I., F.R.I.B.A. Executive Committee: G. L. Wilson. F.S.I., F.R.I.B.A.
Lt. G. C. Richards, R.E. M. I. DeVille, P.A.S.I. J. E. Richardson, F.S.I.
(Hon. Secretary)
Members: W. A. Cornell. F.S... F.R.I.B.A.
A. E. Lissaman. F.S.I., M.Inst.M. & Cy.E. W. J. Skinner. F.S.I., M.R.S.I.
A. V. Currie, P.A.S.I.
Lt. A. V. Godfrey, R.A., P.A.S.I.
H. C. James, P.A.S.I.
W A. Johnson, P.A.S.I., A.M.Inst.M., & Cy.E. Capt. A. H. Martin. R.E., P.A.S.I.
Capt. C. E. Pinel.
F. Shanks, P.A.S.I.
O. C. Womack, P.A.S.I.
A. M. J. Wright, P.A.S.I.
V. A. Perkins, P.A.S.I.
Fellows, Colonial Fellows and Professional Associates are those practising or employed in one of the branches of surveying.
"Honorary Members are those who by reason either cf his position or experience, or of his eminence in science, may be enabled to render assistance in promoting the objects of the Institution, while Associates are those who are not surveyors by profession, but whose pursuits shall be such as to qualify them to concur with surveyors in the advancement of professional knowledge."
Many Associate Members are Barristers practising at the Parliamentary Bar.
One of the most notable of this class of member was Lord Alverstone Webster), Lord Chief Justice, who in his book "Recollections of Bar and Bench" makes several references to the Surveyors' Institution and how helpful the knowledge obtained by Membership had been to him when dealing with cases of property purchased under compulsory powers.
Another eminent lawyer, Mr. Justice Hawkins Baron Brampton), spoke of the Headquarters of the Intitution as the "Gold Mine"; so many of the big arbit- ration cases having been held in its arbitration rooms.
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