1926-05-27 — Page 1

PRESENT:―

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. 25 27TH MAY, 1926.

emotion of the grievous loss sustained by this

Colony through his death. When, as a young

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR (SIR CECIL CLEMENTI, K.C.M.G.).

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GENERAL OFFICER COMMANDING THE TROOPS, ACTING (LIEUT.- COLONEL MONTAGUE BATES).

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY (HON. MR. W. T. SOUTHORN).

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL (HON. MR. J. H. KEMP, K.C., C.B.E.).

THE COLONIAL TREASURER (HON. MR. C. McI. MESSER, O.B.E.).

HON. MR. E. R. HALLIFAX, C.M.G., C.B.E. (Secretary for Chinese Affairs).

HON. MR. H. T. CREASY (Director of Public Works).

HON. MR. E. D. C. WOLFE (Captain Superintendent of Police).

HON. SIR HENRY POLLOCK, K.C.

HON. SIR SHOU-SON CHOW.

HON. MR. A. O. LANG.

HON. MR. H. W. BIRD.

HON. MR. R. H. KOTEWALL, LL.D.

HON. MR. D. G. M. BERNARD.

MR. S. B. B. McELDERRY (Clerk of Councils).

Minutes

The Minutes of the last meeting of the Council were confirmed.

Colonial Secretary

HON. MR. W. T. SOUTHORN took the oath upon taking his seat as Colonial Secretary.

Hon. Sir Paul Chater and

Mr. P. H. Holyoak

H.E. THE GOVERNOR said―Last night Sir Paul Chater passed away at his home in this island. It is difficult for me to speak without

cadet, I first landed in Hongkong, I stepped ashore upon ground which under a most successful scheme, devised by Sir Paul, had been newly reclaimed from the sea. Sir Paul was then already a member of both the Executive and Legislative Councils. Indeed it is now forty years since he first sat in this Chamber. My earliest recollections as Clerk of the Executive and Legislative Councils in Hongkong are associated with memories of Sir Paul, whose sage advice, whose wonderful foresight and breadth of vision. whose remarkable financial skill, and whose unbounded enthusiasm for all that tended to develop this Colony never failed to have a marked influence upon the decisions of both Councils and at all times informed the policy of the Hongkong Government.

I stood yesterday at Sir Paul's bedside and, as all who knew him would have expected, his last words to me concerned what he might still, even after death, do for the benefit of Hongkong. He has bequeathed to this Colony his house, his marvellous collection of porcelain and his historical series of pictures of Hongkong from the days of its infancy. But above all he has bequeathed to Hongkong development schemes of great magnitude, many already completed and some on their way to completion, schemes which have changed the face of the land, which have vastly increased the prosperity of the Colony and which will inure to the comfort and contentment of present and future generations of its inhabitants. While Hongkong and Kowloon endure, so long will his work remain as his imperishable memorial.

Yesterday also brought us the sad news that Mr. Holyoak had died in England. Like Sir Paul Chater, Mr. Holyoak was a member of both the Executive and Legislative Councils: and the sudden loss of two of our most valued Councillors in

26 HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

one and the same week is a severe blow to Hongkong. Both were in heavy harness up to the day of their death: for Mr. Holyoak, although absent on leave, had been charged with business of high importance which he hoped to transact on behalf of this Colony while in England. Mr. Holyoak was also up to the time of his departure, Chairman of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce and throughout the anxious period of the boycott, when his own business made great demands upon him, he filled with distinction that exacting public position in addition to discharging very faithfully his duties in the Executive and Legislative Councils. The Colony and especially the mercantile community owe Mr. Holyoak a deep debt of gratitude for his services during a difficult period of strain and stress; and we all mourn his death both as a personal and a public loss and also as being in a measure a sacrifice due to unremitting labour for the good of Hongkong.

I move that there be recorded in our minutes an expression of the grief with which we have learned of the deaths of Sir Paul Chater and Mr. Holyoak, as well as of our profound sense of the loss which the Colony has thereby sustained and that the Clerk of the Council be instructed to convey to the bereaved families our deepest sympathy.

HON. SIR HENRY POLLOCK said ― On behalf of the Unofficial members of this Council I beg to second Your Excellency's words. It is difficult to express adequately what I feel on the present occasion. Within the brief space of 24 hours, I have heard of the news of the passing away of both my Unofficial colleagues on the Executive Council; men with whom I have had the honour of being associated for many years past in matters affecting the legislation and the public life of this Colony.

In looking back over Sir Paul Chater's career, I have had no difficulty in finding the word which would most aptly describe his work. Sir Paul was a master-builder. His mind was eminently constructive in all things, and it was a master mind―a mind which mastered the whole of every project upon which he was engaged down to the very smallest detail. This mastery of detail is aptly illustrated by what Sir Paul did in the early eighties at the time when the scheme for the Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company was first being mooted. Mr.

Chater, as he then was, left nothing to chance, but himself went out day after day in a small Chinese sampan with a sounding lead to satisfy himself by personal observation that there was sufficient depth of water off Kowloon Point for the large wharf and godown business which he had in view and which has grown into the big and important concern of the present day. I hope that I may be pardoned for quoting this incident because it illustrates the point which I wish to make that Sir Paul's success was not due to mere luck but was largely attributable to that species of genius which has been defined as an infinite capacity for taking pains.

It is impossible with in reasonable limits of time to attempt even to enumerate the vast works in this Colony with which Sir Paul's name will be inseparably connected. He has to his credit the main share in carrying through two large Reclamation Schemes, the Praya Reclamation Scheme, which was carried out between 1889 and 1897, which gave us an immense area of flat building land from West Point to the West end of the Naval Yard, and the Praya East Reclamation scheme from the east end of the Naval Yard to East Point, which will be completed in the course of the next few years and will give this Colony a most valuable addition to its available building land.

Also Sir Paul has been the chief moving spirit in such important building development companies as the Hongkong Land Investment Company, and three other companies of a similar character which had a successful career in their day―The Kowloon Land and Building Company, the West Point Building Company and the Land Reclamation Company. In addition Sir Paul has rendered yeoman service to various essential public companies, on the board of which he has sat and has given the shareholders the benefit of his ripe experience. He is also known as the pioneer of much building development in Kowloon.

Nor is Sir Paul less conspicuous when we come to consider not merely the work which he has put in on innumerable

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. 27

Public Committees in this Colony but also his generous gifts to our University and his munificent donations to the Churches of this Colony and other public institutions. In addition Sir Paul has also performed anonymously many acts of private benevolence. In private life Sir Paul was the embodiment of patience and courtesy and his almost encyclopedic memory made a talk with him on the past history of this Colony extra-ordinarily interesting. By his death the Colony has lost a many-sided man of rare ability, who had a lasting and abiding faith in Hongkong and its future progress. It is hard to lose such a man especially at the present time.

Turning now to our other colleague, Mr. Holyoak, I find it difficult indeed to express all that I feel in regard to his untimely death in the prime of life. It was my privilege a little over ten years ago to propose him as Member of the Legislative Council in the place of the late Mr. Hewett, and I then expressed the prediction that he would be found to be a worthy successor to Mr. Hewett in this Council and also in public work for the good of this Colony.

That prediction has been more than amply fulfilled for on many occasions since in this Council and at Public meetings I have been proud to be his lieutenant and to second to the best of my ability his strenuous and eloquent efforts for the public welfare. Such a man of wide and noble vision will be indeed hard to replace, and his readiness to help privately all those in need made him much beloved. For the nine months before he left here to take his last voyage home I was in constant and sometimes in daily touch with him, and the spectacle that impressed itself on my mind then was that of a brave spirit battling gallantly against odds, for, apart from being a member of both Councils and his onerous duties as Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce under trade and shipping conditions of an abnormal and unprecedented character, he had to struggle against business worries and almost continuous ill-health.

In him the Colony has lost a great and patriotic citizen, and I, and very many others, a loyal comrade and a true friend.

HON. SIR SHOU-SON CHOW―With deep sorrow I beg, in the name of the Chinese Community, to associate my Chinese colleague and myself with the remarks of Your Excellency

and of the Hon. Senior Unofficial Member of the Council.

The resolutions were passed by all members of the Council standing.

Finance

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of H.E. The Governor, laid upon the table the Report of the Finance Committee No. 2, and moved that it be adopted.

THE COLONIAL TREASURER seconded, and the motion was agreed to.

Papers

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of H.E. The Governor, laid on the table the following papers, which had been published in the Government Gazette since the last meeting of the Council:―

Regulation made under section 6 of the Dogs Ordinance, 1893, on 22nd April, 1926. Proclamation under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899, Table L, Quarantine Regulations, on 26th April, 1926.

Two notifications under section 90 of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903, on 27th April, 1926.

Two regulations made under section 17 of the Police Force Ordinance, 1900, on 27th April, 1926.

Amendments to the Statutes of the University.

Two proclamations under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899, Table L, Quarantine Regulations on 20th May, 1926.

Rescission of the Order of 17th December, 1925, proclaming Shanghai to be an infectious place.

Report of the General Post Office for the year 1925.

Report of the Harbour Master for the year 1925.

Report of the Committee appointed to consider suggestions for the improvement of the Fire Fighting Organization of the Colony (Sessional Paper No. 6 of 1926).

28 HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Outbreak of Rabies

HON. MR. A. O. LANG gave notice that he would ask the following questions at the next meeting of the Council.

Will the Government state:―

(1) The number of deaths from Rabies since the beginning of present outbreak.

(2) The number of those inoculated who have subsequently died from Rabies.

(3) If it is the intention to take more drastic measures for the prevention of the spread of Rabies.

(4) If the question of establishing a Pasteur Institute in Hongkong has been considered.

Bathing Beaches

HON. SIR HENRY POLLOCK, K.C., put the following questions:

(1) Will the Government appoint a Committee for the purpose of considering and reporting to this Council on the following questions in connection with Repulse Bay, namely:―

(a) The feasibility of providing better bathing accommodation.

(b) The feasibility of enlarging the area of the beach which can be bathed from by the removal of rocks from the western end of the Bay.

(c) The provision of the proper sanitary conveniences for those resorting to Repulse Bay.

(d) The regular removal by scavenging coolies of rubbish and refuse and tins from the houses and beach.

(e) The regular inspection by a Sanitary Inspector of the septic tanks and drainage and other outlets, for the purpose of ensuring that the same are working effectively and without danger to the public health.

(f) The cutting and keeping cut, and the removal of all rubbish and refuse and tins from, the long grass and other undergrowth below the Hotel Garage, and in such other places as are recommended by the above Committee.

(g) Generally, the making of such recommendations as may tend to improve the bathing and public health conditions at Repulse Bay and to check the breeding of flies and mosquitoes.

(2) Will the Government also empower the above Committee to consider and report upon the feasibility of inaugurating a new public bathing beach in the neighbourhood of Stanley?

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY replied ― H.E. The Governor has appointed the following Committee to report on the existing facilities, sanitation, and scavenging at bathing beaches generally, and in particular at Repulse Bay and at Castle Peak, and on the feasibility of inaugurating additional public bathing beaches, and to make recommendations as to the lines on which the future policy of the Government with respect to bathing beaches should be framed:― Dr. J. B. Addison (Chairman), Hon. Sir H. E. Pollock, K.C., Hon. Sir Shou Son Chow, Mr. D. W. Tratman, Mr. E. W. Carpenter, Dr. A. G. M. Severn with Mr. W. Schofield as Secretary.

Transport in Kowloon

HON. MR. D. G. M. BERNARD asked:―

(1) What is the present position with regard to the establishment of a permanent manent system in Kowloon?

(2) Will the Government consider the advisability of employing an expert from Home to advise as to the most suitable type of vehicle to adopt?

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY replied:―

1.The motor-bus companies at present operating in Kowloon have been given a guarantee that they will be allowed to operate for at least three years more if they maintain a satisfactory and efficient service.

2.It is not considered necessary to engage an expert from England to advise on the most suitable type of vehicle for use in Hongkong.

Considerable experience of local conditions would be required before any such expert would be in a position to give valuable assistance.

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. 29

Chinese Restaurant Licences

The resolutions, regarding Chinese Restaurant licences, standing in the name of the COLONIAL SECRETARY on the agenda, were postponed by agreement of the Council.

The Bank of Canton

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled, An Ordinance to authorise the Bank of Canton, Limited, to convert its gold capital into silver. He said― This Bill is promoted by the Bank of Canton and the reasons for it are explained, I think sufficiently, in the Objects and Reasons appended to the Bill by the promoters. Shortly, the object is to convert the capital of the Bank back again into its original form in silver. It is thought now by the directors that the capital should now, and should in future always be, in silver.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was read a first time.

The Post Office

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the second reading of the Bill intituled, An Ordinance to amend the law relating to the Post Office.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was read a second time.

Council then went into Committee to consider the Bill clause by clause.

Sub-section (1) of Clause 13 read:―

It shall be lawful for the Colonial Secretary to grant a warrant authorising the Postmaster General, or authorising any of or all the officers of the Post Office, to open and delay any specified postal packet, or all postal packets of any specified class, posted in the Colony or received by the Post Office from outside the Colony for delivery in the Colony, or any postal packet which may be posted in the Colony by any specified person or firm or which may be received by the Post Office from outside the Colony for delivery in the

Colony to any specified person or firm.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved that the above sub-section should be changed to:―

It shall be lawful for the Colonial Secretary to grant a warrant authorising the Postmaster General, or authorising any or all the officers of the Post Office, to open and delay any specified postal packet or all postal packets of any specified class or all postal packets whatsoever.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded and this was agreed to.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL also moved that July should be substituted for June in Clause 40 which dealt with the date when the Ordinance should come into operation.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and this was agreed to.

Council resumed and

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

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was read a third time and passed.

Council then adjourned sine die.

FINANCE COMMITTEE

A meeting of the Finance Committee followed the COLONIAL SECRETARY presiding.

The Committee having considered the items of Supplementary Expenditure Nos. 185 to 198 of 1925 and Nos. 85 to 101 of 1926, in message No. 5 of 22nd May, recommended that they be authorised.

THE CHAIRMAN then asked the Committee's permission to spend a sum not exceeding $3,500 for the remainder of this year to secure needed furniture and additional staff for the Colonial Secretariat. Two extra clerks were required, one a stenographer and typist and the other a correspondence clerk.

The expenditure of this sum was approved.