185 (10) ·
60. It must be borne in mind that the only means the Colony possesses of housing the Chinese population is by meaus of these sub-divisions, without which it is impossible for the middle and poor classes of Chinese to live comfortably and decently.
61. Ordinance 1 of 1903 totally prohibited the erection of cubicles and when it was found unworkable, it was consequently amended as above stated to allow one cubicle to be erected on each of the upper floors of existing houses and none on the ground floor. Under both Ordinances, however, the erection of cubicles in the newly built houses is entirely forbidden.
62. As it has appeared in evidence, the ainended Ordinance is still found impracticable and inflicts too much hardship on the Chinese, who feel compelled to send their families back to the mainland of China, owing to the consequent increase in the cost of living and want of domestic comfort and privacy.
63. Those who cannot very well send their families away, have been driven to use cloth, and in the case of the poor class, rags, in place of wooden partitions to secure a little privacy for their women folk.
64. This has made the condition of sanitation go from bad to worse, in so much as the cloth partitions, while preventing ventilation as much as the wooden ones, accumulate dirt to a far greater extent, and are more liable to cause fires,
65. The Chinese tenement houses are so peculiarly constructed that every. storey or floor as it is commonly called is simply one long room. The rent of each room ranges from $10 in the poor districts to $50 per month in the busiest part of the city. Very few Chinese can afford to take a whole storey. Generally two or three families keep a floor together, in order to bring it within their means to keep their wives and children with them.
66. An instance may be given of a Chinaman earning $10 a month as a clerk, though $40 a month is above the average earning of a Chinese clerk. He must live in a fairly respectable manner as his position requires it. He cannot live far away from his business amongst the coolies. Ile has to rent a floor in the Central District, which costs at least $20 per month, accommodating about twelve persons. Practically half of his wages is absorbed by the rent, the remaining half being barely sufficient to pay for his daily necessaries, for, under the present law. it is impossible for him to save 40 per cent. to 50 per cent. of the rent by partition- ing off the floor and sharing it with another family as before.
67. Even when a better paid man can afford to pay $20 to $30 rent a month, the present Ordinance presses with undue severity on him. He may have a mother, a sister or a brother living with him, besides his own wife and children, and one or two servants. The only cubicle allowed to be put up is used by him- self and his wife. His mother, children and all the members of his family have to sleep and do everything in full open. view of each other in the remaining space.
68. Except in the cubicle, there is no other privacy available. The law does not allow even a little space to be enclosed for the sake of convenience, dressing and washing. Reduced to this primitive state, life amongst the wage earning classes of Chinese has become almost unbearable.
69. The Chinese merchants and traders, too, are not left without a share of the hardship. The rent of their shop varies between $30 and $100 per floor, which is similar in construction to the floors of the tenement houses. To meet their business requirements, an office or accountant's room must be put up on the ground floor. The present law requires it to be constructed with an open front above the counter, which is unsuitable for the conduct of business, requiring privacy and security.
The common practice of a Chinese merchant is to keep his safe and atable papers in the accountant's room, and as the caretaker of these, the accountant or shroff is to sleep in the room, but the law also forbids this, for any enclosed space used for sleeping purposes is a cubicle and therefore illegal.
71. The other floors of a Chinese firm are also partitioned into so many cubicles for the manager and the clerks, and any cubicles which are not required for the staff, are in the majority of cases let to the agents of other smaller
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