Sessional_Paper_1907 — Page 456

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A.-Clearly. I have done quite a lot of dilapidations under the Ecclesiastical Dilapid- ations Act. That is where an Incumbent is called upon by the Bishop to make good the defects of his parsonage. It is periodical inspection. Their regulations are laid down very carefully, and they are the result of many conference on all these affairs, and on no acconnt are you allowed to condemn or require to be renewed a whole structure or part of a structure unless the whole of it is bad. A window sash may have five bars rotten, and if the sixth is not rotten, you can only call upon him to renew five bars, and the same principle holds throughout.

Mr. Shelton Hooper.--These principles were inade by the Ecclesiastical Act?

The

A.-Originally part of it, Queen's Anne's Bounty Rules and Ecclesiastical Act. Act was made providing for the various inspections and drawing the fees, but the Surveyors themselves have formed a Society, and they meet periodically, and all these points are brought up, and adjudicated upon by the whole meeting very frequently.

Q-Aren't these Surveyors or Ecclesiastical Commissioners,...........Clutton?

A. They have nothing to do with the Bishops. Each diocese has so many Surveyors. Some have two and some three. I was in St. Albans, and we had four, which is large diocese.

Q.-And what you have just quoted, those cases are your experience when acting as Surveyor, surveying dilapidations?

I was

A.-You will not find my name in the list, but you will find my father's name. doing the work, but he was Surveyor really. I was only acting as Junior. I might mention that these dilapidation notices are always bitterly fought and objected to by every Incumbent, and they have to be absolutely right.

The Chairman.-Because it is to come out of his own pocket, I suppose.

Mr. Humphreys.--You said jus: now that the contractors in Hongkong always used what is described as number three line?

A. Yes.

Q.-But if you brought pressure to bear on them, they would use a mixture of numbers two and three ?

A. Yes.

Q. From that I would infer that number one, and a good deal of number two, never finds its way into building operations at all. What becomes of it?

A-It goes to the ceiling. It is in the tall baskets lined with paper.

Q.—And mixed with a little number two, possibly?

A. No, they dont adulterate bat. They sell it by bulk, and they sell as much air in it as they possibly can. If they put any sand in, it would settle down the whole mass of lime in the basket, and they would only get half a basket, and only be paid for half a basket.

Q.-You mean the ceilings of better class houses?

A.--No, ordinary Chinese houses, just the same. They can't use the other.

Under the Ordinance, tenement

Mr. Shelton Hooper.-Now, as to limewashing. houses have to be limewashed twice a year, and you know the sort of limewash which is used, and the way it is put on here. Do you think that it is necessary to limewash all Chinese houses, irrespective of class, twice a year?