[ { "id": 206155, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 235, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "228 \n\nOVERBURY, Miss U. M. \n\nPANG, Potter - \n\nPATTERSON, G. N. \n\nPAYNE, Miss P. M. \n\nPAYNTER, J. L. \n\nPENNELL, W. V. \n\nPERESYPKIN, O. P. · \n\nPHILLIPS, Prof. J. G. \n\nPICKFORD, J. B. \n\nPIKE, E. N.. \n\nPIMPANEAU, Prof. J. \n\nPLAG, Rev. A.* - \n\nPOLAND, T. D. \n\nPORDES, F. \n\nPRESCOTT, J. A. \n\nRAINBIRD, S. W. O'C. - \n\nRASSIM, Mrs. E. \n\nRAYNE, R. N. · \n\nREAR, John \n\nREDFERN, O'Donnell S. \n\nREES, W.- \n\nRICHES, G. C. P. \n\nRIDE, Sir Lindsay* \n\nRIDE, Lady* \n\nRIGBY, Lady \n\n- \n\n- \n\n- \n\nc/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., P.O. Box 64, H.K. \n\nc/o The H.K. Model Housing Society, 908 The H.K. Chinese Bank Building, H.K \n\n11A, Stanley Beach Road, G/F., Stanley, H.K. \n\nc/o Physiotherapy Department, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon, \n\nc/o Canadian Trade Commission, P.O. Box 126, H.K. \n\nC'an Boyet Mear Puerto Pollensa, Majorca, Spain. \n\nP. O. Box 1382, H.K. \n\nc/o Dept. of Zoology, University of Hull, England. \n\nFlat 2, Buxey Lodge, 37 Conduit Road, H.K, \n\nc/o The Asia Foundation, 2 Old Peak Road, H.K. \n\n15 Tung Shan Terrace, H.K. \n\n7000 Stuttgart 1, Roemerstr 41, Germany, (Federal Republic). \n\n3 Coombe Road, First Floor, H.K. \n\nRoom 209, Gloucester Building, H.K. \n\nWest Penthouse, 11 Conduit Road, H.K. \n\nc/o Training Unit, Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K. \n\n101 Holland Road, Hove 2, Sussex, England. \n\nc/o Chung Chi College, C.U.H.K., Shatin, N.T. \n\nc/o Dept. of Law, University of Hong Kong. \n\n154-158 Caine Road, H.K. \n\n101 Tregunter Mansions, Old Peak Road, H.K. \n\n67 Mount Nicholson Gap, H.K. \n\nc/o Dept. of Social Work, University of Hong Kong, H.K. \n\n8A Beach Road, Stanley, H.K. \n\nAs above. \n\n50 Magazine Gap Road, H.K, \n\n*Life Member \n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206447, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 264, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "238\n\nNORONHA, J. E. -\n\nO'BRIEN, Dr. J. P.\n\nO'CALLAGHAN, Sean\n\nOGDEN, B. J. N.\n\nOLIVER, J. R.\n\n+\n\nORR, Iain C..\n\nOU, Miss G. -\n\nOVERBURY, Miss U. M.\n\nOXLEY, C. W. B. -\n\nPANG, Potter ·\n\nPATTERSON, G. N.\n\nPAYNE, Miss P. M.\n\nPAYNTER, J. L.\n\nPENNELL, W. V.\n\n-\n\nPERESYPKIN, O. P.\n\nPICKFORD, J. B. -\n\nPIMPANEAU, Prof. J.\n\nPLAG, Rev. A.*\n\nPOLAND, T. D.\n\nPORDES, F. -\n\nPOSTON, Williams S.\n\nPRESCOTT, J. A.\n\nPYE, Miss Beverley\n\nQUESTED, Mrs. R. K. I.\n\n+\n\n+\n\n-\n\nc/o W.F. Bollmeyer & Co., (H.K.) Ltd.\n\n408, Yu To Sang Building, H.K.\n\nSandy Bay Children's Orthopaedic Hospital,\n\nSandy Bay, H.K,\n\nY.M.C.A. International House, Waterloo Road, Kowloon,\n\nc/o The H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn.,\n\nP.O. Box 64, H.K.\n\nc/o Supreme Court, H.K.\n\n17 Crown Terrace, 3rd Floor, Bisney Villas,\n\nH.K.\n\nc/o French Consulate General, P. O. Box\n\n13, H.K.\n\nc/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., P.O.\n\nBox 64, H.K.\n\nSecretariat for Home Affairs,\n\nInternational Building, 10th Floor, H.K.\n\nc/o The H.K. Model Housing Society, 908 The H.K. Chinese Bank Building, H.K. 11A, Stanley Beach Road, G/F., Stanley,\n\nH.K.\n\nc/o Physiotherapy Department,\n\nQueen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon.\n\nc/o Canadian Trade Commission,\n\nP.O. Box 126, H.K.\n\nC'an Boyet Mear Puerto Pollensa, Majorca,\n\nSpain.\n\nP. O. Box 1382, H.K.\n\nFlat 2, Buxey Lodge, 37 Conduit Road, H.K.\n\n15 Tung Shan Terrace, H.K.\n\n7000 Stuttgart 1, Roemerstr 41, Germany.\n\n(Federal Republic).\n\n3 Coombe Road, First Floor, H.K.\n\nRoom 209, Gloucester Building, H.K.\n\nFlat B-4, 7B Bowen Road, H.K.\n\nHouse 8, 61 Mt. Davies Road, Pokfulum,\n\nH.K.\n\nc/o B.N.P. Central Building, 2nd Floor,\n\nH.K.\n\nDept. of History, University of Hong Kong,\n\nPokfulum, H.K.\n\nJ Life Member\n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206559, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "# REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n101\n\npopulated areas which were used for portable purposes should be closed, that all private lanes and streets should be brought under government control and that back-to-back houses should be demolished as soon as possible.\n\nUnder such desperate circumstances, the government was obliged to take strong action and in the same year as the plague struck it passed, on an emergency basis, the Tai Ping Shan Resumption Ordinance. Under this statute the inhabitants from 8.5 acres of land in the worst affected area were evicted, their properties were resumed and demolished, and the area was laid out anew. The various works were completed by 1899 at a total cost of over HK$944,000. Two smaller schemes in the same locality were carried out in 1902 and 1903 at a cost of some HK$271,000; the total area involved in these schemes was about 0.7 acre.\n\nOther measures were introduced in 1894 in the Closed Houses and Insanitary Dwellings Ordinance under which the height of buildings was limited to between 25 ft. and 76 ft. depending on the length and width of the street. The Ordinance also gave powers of inspection to the Sanitary Board to ascertain breaches of the law against overcrowding, the standard of measurement being 30 sq. ft. of floor area and 400 cu. ft. of air space per occupant. Despite the apparent necessity for such measures the unofficial members of Legislative Council pressed for less restrictive clauses.\n\nIn 1895 there was a respite from the plague with only 44 reported cases, but in the following year over 1,200 persons were afflicted. Thereafter, the plague became an annual visitation, mainly in the torrid summer months, and persisted until 1907. Altogether, there were some 13,000 victims between 1894 and 1906 giving an average of over 1,000 a year.\n\nThe continued concern of the government over the insanitary condition of the Colony led to the appointment of a commission to look further into the matter and a report12 was duly submitted in 1898, the year in which the New Territories were leased from China. After a comprehensive survey of 3,095 houses in two health districts,\n\n11 Minute by the Principal Medical Officer on the Report of the Public Health and Building Ordinance Commission, Appendix A. p. 5 in the Blue Book Reports on Sanitation and Housing 1900-1907, Hong Kong, 1907.\n\n12 Report of the Commission to Inquire into the Existence of Insanitary Properties in the Colony, Hong Kong, 1898.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206561, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n103\n\ncondition of Hong Kong and to appoint an independent expert to advise the commission.\n\nAs a result, Chadwick, who so competently advised the government on the sanitary needs of Hong Kong in 1882, was given the task of reappraising the situation from an engineering point-of-view, and in 1902 he submitted his report. He concluded that the sewerage system had been constructed in accordance with the principles laid down in 1882 and that, on the whole, the system was working well. He also found that scavenging was efficiently carried out but that the storm water drainage system needed reprovisioning. As for insanitary buildings, he stated that the situation was worse than 20 years previous and recommended that extensive resumption and reconstruction be undertaken.\n\nIn his report Chadwick noted that:\n\n+ recommendations made from time to time during the past 20 years by the professional advisers of government have been practically set aside. The reason for this is simple. If the number of people which can be packed on a given plot of ground is reduced by limiting height and by reserving open spaces, obviously the value of that plot is reduced also. Now land is costly in Hong Kong, either it has to be excavated in the hillside or reclaimed from the sea. Naturally, the land owner desires to get the best rental for his land by crowding as many tenants upon it as possible. Consequently, during the past 20 years, numerous Buildings Ordinances have been brought before the Legislative Council, but in each case, many salutary provisions have been withdrawn or emasculated at the request of the unofficial members representing the landed interests.17\n\nThe principal legislative measure introduced after the submission of Chadwick's report was the consolidation and introduction of new building and health regulations in the form of the Public Health and Building Ordinance of 1903. Under this Ordinance the minimum standards of accommodation were set at 50 sq. ft. of habitable floor area and 550 cu. ft. of unobstructed internal air space per adult person provided that any room which did not contain a cubicle could be inhabited at 35 sq. ft. and 330 cu. ft. per person.\n\n16 Chadwick O., The Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1902.\n\n17 Ibid., p. 34.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206563, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n105\n\nOn the question of the resumption and reconstruction of slum properties on the scale envisaged by Chadwick, the government was sympathetic to the idea but in view of the heavy commitments to other more urgent public works, it was not prepared to make a specific regular financial allocation for the purpose.\n\nThe difficulty and reluctance of enforcing the new building and health regulations plus the reluctance of government to undertake redevelopment on any effective scale compounded the housing problem of Hong Kong, the population of which had reached 457,000 persons by 1911, of whom 314,000 lived in the congested urban areas. Any intention of effective action in subsequent years was overcome by the Chinese Revolution in 1911, which brought an influx of refugees into the Colony, and also by the events which culminated in the Great War of 1914-1918.\n\nThe Inter-War Years: 1918-1940\n\nDespite the imposition of overseas trade barriers, the Colony quickly re-established itself as an entrepot port after the 1914-1918 War. With the resurgence of commercial activities, and therefore employment opportunities, the population increased rapidly, so that by 1921 over 625,000 persons were resident in Hong Kong. Of this total, over 347,000 lived on Hong Kong Island and some 123,000 resided in the rapidly developing Kowloon peninsula, where extensive reclamations had been carried out (Figure 2).\n\nThe question of providing adequate housing for the community again became a matter of some concern for the Government, and a commission was appointed to consider what measures were possible to increase the quantity and decrease the cost of residential accommodation in the Colony.19 The commission reported in 1923, and recommended that the government should undertake the development of extensive areas for building in the Kowloon peninsula. The removal of military establishments from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and the use of these sites for housing, was also put forward, together with the recommendation that communications to outlying areas should be extended and improved so as to open up new districts for development. Other suggestions made by the Commission included the provision of cheap loans and land to house builders.\n\n19 Report of the Housing Commission, Hong Kong, 1923.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206564, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "106\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nbuilders, the development of low-cost housing schemes by Government, the imposition of penalties on unused private land, the conversion of godowns (warehouses) into tenements by adding on further storeys, the publication of standard house designs, the use of labour-saving machinery, the provision of large supply depots at convenient locations for building materials, the setting up of local industries in the New Territories for the manufacture of building materials, the establishment of bamboo and fir tree plantations for scaffolding and the continuation of rent controls.\n\nWhilst development in the Kowloon Peninsula gathered momentum, little became of the recommendations made by the Housing Commission and with the further growth of the population to almost 841,000 persons by 1931, of whom 79% lived in the urban areas, the housing situation reached serious proportions. Some indication of the congested living conditions is given by the densities which prevailed in the Western district where, on average, there were 917 persons per acre.20\n\nThe economic \"depression\" of the 1930s greatly reduced the prospects for effective action to help meet the Colony's pressing housing requirements. The situation was further aggravated by the continued arrival of people from China, which resulted in an increase of the population from 841,000 in 1931 to 988,000 by 1936.\n\nHowever, in 1935 new legislation was introduced whereby the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance of 1903 was split into a separate Buildings Ordinance and a series of Public Health Ordinances. One of the changes brought about by the new Building Ordinance was that the maximum depth of domestic buildings was reduced from 40 ft. to 35 ft. although this could be exceeded if every storey were provided with windows to ensure that the whole storey was adequately lit. The provisions of the 1903 Ordinance regarding the height of buildings were also modified, but differential controls continued to apply in favour of property owners who had leased land before 1903. In short, the height of buildings was still governed by the width of the street but, within this limitation, buildings could not exceed 3 storeys unless built of fire-resistant materials; in order to exceed 5 storeys the consent of the Governor-in-Council was required.\n\n20 Commissioner of Census, \"Report on the Census for the Colony for 1931\" Sessional Papers. Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1928-1932, Hong Kong 1932, pp. 108-109.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206565, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n107\n\nhad to be obtained. Under the Public Health (Sanitation) Ordinance of 1935 more stringent conditions were introduced to ensure the provision of adequate latrine facilities but the minimum standard of accommodation for the assessment of overcrowding was brought down to 35 sq. ft. of habitable floor area and 350 cu. ft. of unobstructed internal air space per adult.\n\nWhilst the new building regulations provided a means for the limitation of congestion through the over-intensive use of land, the enforcement of measures to relieve overcrowding within buildings continued to meet with little success and this matter became the subject of an inquiry by another housing commission which was appointed in 1935 to consider what steps should be taken to remedy the situation.21\n\nIt was estimated by the commission that in 1935 there was a shortage of between 25,000 and 35,000 flats. In commenting upon the badly congested living conditions in many districts it was noted in the commission's report that, to a large degree, the existence of such conditions could be accounted for by the fact that before coming to Hong Kong many Chinese were used to living in compact rural communities where sanitary arrangements were very basic and overcrowding merely a way of life.22 This acceptance of minimal standards plus a fatalistic attitude towards life thus produced no strong demand for improvement when families moved to Hong Kong.\n\nAnother relevant factor noted in the commission's report was that the housing problem was attributable in a large measure to the fact that most working-class families could not afford to rent a whole tenement floor, with the consequence that living space was sub-divided and rented out to separate households. Moreover, the law took no account of the needs of different families or sexes for separate accommodation for, as noted, the minimum standard of occupation was set at 35 sq. ft. of floor area and 350 cu. ft. of internal air space per adult person. This arbitrary measure assumed that the available living space could be evenly distributed among all the occupants of a dwelling.\n\nThe recommendations made by the commission added weight to some of the proposals put forward in 1923; namely that in order to\n\n21 Report of the Housing Commission, 1935, Hong Kong, 1938.\n\n22 Ibid., p. 11.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206566, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "108\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nreduce overcrowding it was essential to provide more and better designed houses, to decentralise the population into new self-contained communities and to reduce building density. The commission also recommended the setting up of a permanent town planning and housing committee and the provision of more public parks. It made the further suggestions that the provision of adequate housing for the poorer classes should not be left to private enterprise without assistance and that consideration should be given to the financing of slum clearance and subsidised housing by means of a special tax, loan or issue of housing shares.\n\nThe tide of events again overwhelmed any intentions the government had for implementing the findings of the commission for in 1937 the Japanese declared war against China and this brought 750,000 refugees into the Colony. However, a Town Planning Ordinance was passed in 1939 to provide for the layout of new urban areas and the replanning of districts already developed although nothing was immediately achieved under this Ordinance as the Colony was engulfed in December 1940 by the Japanese conquest of South-East Asia.\n\nThe Past Meets the Present: 1945-1971\n\nThere was considerable damage to property during the war and a survey carried out in 1946 showed that almost 8,700 domestic units had been destroyed and some 10,300 damaged.23 The number of persons displaced as a result totalled 161,000 of whom 154,000 were Chinese.\n\nAlthough the population of the Colony had been reduced to 600,000 persons by 1945 as a result of Japanese deportations and voluntary movements back to China, large numbers of displaced people came back with the return of peace so that by 1947 there were some 1.8 million persons in Hong Kong. It is not hard to imagine the circumstances under which most families had to live in view of the depleted stock of housing and the limited availability of public services during the immediate post-war years.\n\nThe housing problem became even worse as a consequence of the establishment of the People's Republic in China during 1948-49 which motivated yet more refugees to seek shelter in the Colony.\n\n23 Building Reconstruction Advisory Committee, Final Report, Hong Kong, 1946, Appendix 2, p. 13.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206586, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 134, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "128\n\nReferences:\n\n1. Building Reconstruction Advisory Committee Final Report, Hong Kong, 1946.\n\n2. Chadwick O., Report on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1882.\n\n3. Chadwick O., The Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1902.\n\n4. Commissioner of Census Report on the Censuses of the Colony for 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931, 1961 and 1966.\n\n5. Commissioner of Rating & Valuation Property Review 1971, Hong Kong, 1972.\n\n6. Dwyer D. S. (ed) Asian Urbanisation: A Hong Kong Casebook, Hong Kong 1971.\n\n7. Hong Kong Government \"Annual Report of the Colonial Surgeon\", The Hong Kong Government Gazette, 4th April 1874.\n\n8. Hong Kong Government \"Chinese Houses\", The Hong Kong Government Gazette, 27th July 1878.\n\n9. Hong Kong Government Blue Book Reports on Sanitation and Housing, Hong Kong 1907.\n\n10. Hong Kong Government Report of the Commission to inquire into the existence of Insanitary Properties in the Colony, Hong Kong, 1898.\n\n11. Hong Kong Government Report of the Commission Appointed by his Excellency the Governor to Enquire into and Report on the Administration of the Sanitary and Building Regulations Enacted by the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance 1903 and the Existence of Corruption among the officials charged with the Administration of the Aforesaid Regulations, Hong Kong, 1907.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206587, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n12. Hong Kong Government\n\n13. Hong Kong Government\n\n14. Lowson J. A.,\n\n15. Maunder W. F. & Szczepanik E. F.,\n\n16. Pryor E. G.\n\n17. Wellington A. R.,\n\n129\n\nReport of the Housing Commission, Hong Kong 1923.\n\nReport of the Housing Commission 1935, Hong Kong 1938.\n\n\"The Epidemic of Bubonic Plague in Hong Kong 1894\", Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1895, Hong Kong Sessional Papers, Hong Kong 1895.\n\nHong Kong Housing Survey 1957, University of Hong Kong in the Final Report of the Special Committees on Housing 1956-1958, Hong Kong, 1958.\n\n“An Assessment of the Need and Scope for Urban Renewal in Hong Kong\", Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Hong Kong, 1971.\n\nPublic Health in Hong Kong, Hong Kong 1930.\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211374, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 90, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "66\n\nthe Legislative Council.\n\nThe Attorney General introduced the Bill on 21 September 1922. He sounded a cautionary warning, saying that while action was needed, we must attack a problem of this kind very carefully and slowly”, because too much interference with the existing system would cause great hardship.\n\n1\n\nAt the second reading of the bill a week later the Governor stated that the Commission on Child Labour recognised it was inevitable that the regulations on the labour of children would impose hardship on the lowest economic group in Hong Kong, but this was the lesser of two evils, for if nothing were done the harm done to children would continue. He hoped that a general improvement in industry in Hong Kong would assist in alleviating any hardship caused by the new legislation; he noted that already adults were receiving higher wages.\n\nHe assured the Legislature that the Government was committed to expanding educational facilities and was investigating provision of better accommodation for the poor, thus cutting down their housing costs.\n\nHe particularly acknowledged the contribution of Miss Pitts and the Rev. Wells to the Commission's Report. He expected that the passing of the Ordinance would put a seal, as it were, on their work here in connection with the Chinese”.\n\nHe viewed the Bill as the beginning of a proper recognition of the *rights of both women and children in the industrial life of the Colony which has so long been considered desirable but which has not hitherto been very noticeable”.\n\nSeveral Unofficial Members spoke. The Senior Chinese member, the Honourable Mr. Chow Shouson spoke first. He said that he and his Chinese colleagues were in sympathy with the Bill, nevertheless they felt it should be noted that in their opinion if the Bill were passed as it then stood some poor families would be deprived of a part of other earning power. There was the possibility of an increase in juvenile criminals if children, who had formerly been working, were allowed to run wild in the streets.\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213503, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "67\n\nridges and valleys, there seemed to have been an attempt to impose a grid-iron plan for the streets. Though there were some divergencies from this. Pokfulam Road was an old footpath of the Island and Water Street which recalled the old water tank and 'watering place' for ships was influenced by the presence of a nullah.\n\nIn my opinion, it is not difficult to explain why the road pattern was planned in that way. Firstly, in those days with those crude surveying instruments and limited manpower, it was the earliest plan to demarcate the streets in that ridge and valley terrain. Even in 1903, the surveying team consisted only of one inspector, 24 surveyors, 32 Indian chairmen and about 45 Chinese coolies.\n\nSecondly, the British laid out the district in an orderly pattern because they hoped to improve the congested living conditions of the Chinese quarters in this way. The early Chinese quarters like those in Tal Ping Shan district had rapidly become a squatter area. In 1855, a Land Commission was even appointed to investigate the overcrowding in Victoria.\n\nThirdly, the British may also have wanted to have some form of centralized control, political and military, in the Chinese quarter. As H. D. Talbot pointed out in his essay 'An Outline of the Urban Development of Hong Kong Island During the Nineteenth Century', those streets could have been planned as approach roads for the military. (Talbot, 1971, P.57)\n\nOwing to the Tai Ping Rebellion, which began in 1850 and created unsettled conditions in China for almost fifteen years, thousands of refugees rushed to Hong Kong. In 1861, 116,335 Chinese were registered in Hong Kong, a six-fold increase over the 1848 figure of 21,514. The entry of Chinese into Hong Kong in such a large number was unforeseen and naturally little housing provision was made for it. Demand for houses and rooms in Hong Kong vastly exceeded the supply. Every available space was at once filled and the overwhelming population overflowed the buildings.\n\nBy 1880, Sai Ying Pun had become seriously overcrowded. Unoccupied houses (including newly built houses) were being taken up rapidly by the inhabitants (Table 1). Tenement floors were usually", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 } ]