567400-1929-Supplementary-Bills-read-a-first-time---Mercantile-Bank-Note-Issue-Amendment — Page 4

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regulation 7 on page 339 of the Regulations of Hong Kong, It is obvious that the meters throughout the Colony cannot possibly be read on the same day, and the regulation in question provides that for the purpose of calculating the quarterly consumption in any particular tenement the differences between two consecutive readings of the meter is to be taken, It also provides that the reading may be taken on any day not more than ten days before or after the calender date of the commencement of the quarter. Accordingly, the meter reader's quarter for any particular tenement may be longer or shorter than the calendar quarter, but a longer quarter is always balanced later on by a shorter quarter because the last reading of any one quarter must be taken as the first reading of the succeeding quarter. Scetion 3 of this Ordinance inserts in the principal Ordinance a section which expressly recognises what may be called the meter reader's quarter. This same point recurs in section 14 (2) of this Ordi-

nance.

4. Section 3 of the principal Ordinance provides that the Water Authority shall have the administration of the waterworks subject to the general authority of the Governor in Council. Section 4 provides that the officers appointed to carry out the Ordinance shall be under the control of the Water Authority subject to the general authority of the Governor. There seems to be no good reason for making a distinction in these two sections in the matter of the ultimate authority. The Governor in Council is given special powers in particular sections of the Ordinance, but the natural controlling authority for general purposes is the Governor, Accordingly, the opportunity is taken to alter Governor in Council" in section 3 of the principal Ordinance to "Governor". This is effected by section 4 of this Ordinance.

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5. Section 5 of this Ordinance amends section 5 of the principal Ordinance so as to make the ordinary under- taking to pay for water apply to the amount which at present is comprised in the "free allowance". This amendment is necessary even apart from the temporary abolition of the free allowance", because even at pre- sent there are cases in which there is no "free allow- ance".

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6. Section 6 of this Ordinance amends the regulation making section of the principal Ordinance in two ways. In the first place it abolishes the prescut maximum price for water supplied by meter. In the second place it gives the Governor in Council a wide power to make regulations for the purpose of controlling the persons who resort to the public fountains. For example, in a time of shortage such as the present, it may be desirable to assign parti- cular public fountains to particular blocks of buildings and to exclude persons from outside areas. It might also be desirable to introduce some system of rationing. It is also desirable to be able to give powers to police officers and others who may be stationed at public fountains.

7. Sectious 7 to 13, both inclusive, of this Ordinance amends the various penalties under the principal Ordi- nance. Some of the penalties in the principal Ordinance appear to be too small. For example, the maximum penalty for wilful waste of water, however much water may have been wasted, is only $25. Again, the maximum penalty for negligently polluting the waterworks by " any foul liquid gas or other noxious or injurious matter” is only $100, and even for wilful pollution of this nature the maximum is the same. In the second place, the maximum penalties seem to be unnecessarily varied. The amending sections of this Ordinance make the maximum penalty in any case $250 which is now the standard maximum for summary offences. In the two cases where a daily penalty is provided in the principal Ordinance this Ordinance makes the maximum $25 a day,

8. Section 14 of this Ordinance gives power to make the

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temporary abolition of the free allowance apply to the current quarter, and it makes it clear that what is meant is the current meter reader's quarter.

12th July, 1929.

J. H. KEMP,

Attorney General.