185 (157)
1708,9
Q-Can't you get good lime?
A.-I dont think so. I have asked for it from contractors, specified for it, and could not get it.
The Chairman.What sort of price per hundredweight or picul could you afford to pay for good lime?
A.-I could not say, Mr. Chairman.
Q. You have never worked that out?
A.--No.
Q.-You know there is good stone lime to be got in the neighbourhood, some tiles away. Do you think by paying a little more, it would be possible to get it down?
A.
Perhaps. I think they dont burn it properly. It is always full of rubbish.
Q. The old kilns they use here are exactly similar to the old lime kilns I used to see as a child, when I was at home. They have furnaces, and no doubt you have seen them and know the process.
A.-Shell is better for limewashing. It is purer, but there is too much carbonate of lime in it.
Mr. Shelton Hooper.-Now, with regard to limewashing, you know in the Ordinance, it says a place has to be limewashed twice a year ?
A. Yes.
Q-Do you think as a practical man that that is necessary for all tenement houses, in this Colony?
A.-It is a good thing, I should think.
Q.-Then you would say, if you were a Member of the Board, or if you were Autocratic and had all the powers of the Board, that you would make every Chinese shop in Queen's Road limewash twice a year ?
A.—If you do not do that, the others would object.
Q. I am speaking of individual cases.
A.-Discretion might be used.
Q. Dont you think it is unnecessary ?
A. It is unnecessary in some cases.
Q.-We will say the Ordinance has been drawn to meet the worst class of tenement houses in Taipingshan, and to apply that rigorously to first class Chinese houses and hongs-dout you think it is an absurdity?"
A. It is absurd to insist on it, but there are cases where one can get exemption.
Q.-But I am asking you that fact.
A.—It is not necessary to insist on it in every case.
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