Sessional_Paper_1907 — Page 531

Sessional Papers 議政定例兩局文件 All

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Q-Quite so, and that is why we are sitting here. We want to find out what the people's view is.

A.-Well, I wish also for the Governor to understand that there is a difference between Chinese and Western people. This is about the open space. Well, some of us Southern people in the Chinese Empire are not the same. We here wish to have more ventilation, more wind about. Well, most Chinese are afraid to have too much wind about the place. If they wish to be compassionate,-if they dont wish to be compassionate that is another thing, the Government should not insist upon having those open spaces,-not to have so many of them. Now, in Chinese houses, it is very seldom that light comes into the cubicles. There is a difference also in the ventilation that is required by the Chinese and Westerns, and the eating and dwelling place is also different, and so, if the Government would make a distinction and be compassionate to the people. Then, as to the rat catchers, they go and trouble people, and there is no use in it. They go and give the bird lime for catching rats. They try to squeeze the people, and I will tell you one instance. They put some of the bird lime below a money changers staff, and so the people put their feet there, and they stepped on it, and they were told not to put it there, because the feet were constantly coming in that place. "You must not touch it said the man. "If you do, it won't be well for you." Then Hong Hop Lau went to the Branch Office, and saw the master at the Branch Office of the Sanitary Board, and then the Inspector said "No, I did not send any man there with it," and the Inspector told the foreman to go and take it back again, and some one came to take it away.

It was not only there, but it was also placed at the ranges for cooking rice, and it appears to me that even a coolie coming from the Sanitary Board can act in such a bad way. Then these rat catchers are so bad, it should not be; and also the drains, it is not convenient about the drains. It used to be the case in Hongkong that the main drains, if there was any water at all, it all flowed away freely. I had a godown. On the other shops, it is easy for the rain to run away, but this godown is a big place, and the pipes were small, and when the rain water flowed down, they were filled, and the water came up again, and the goods were wet.

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Mr. Fung Wa Chun.-You mean they were flooded?

The Chairman. The water did not run away quick enough?

A.-It came up again from the drains?

Q. Do you mean the trap?

A.It is not a trap. It is the grating over the trap, and there are a great many mosquitos to every drain, and then that is not good. That is the finish.

The Chairman.-Well, the mosquitos you say, come out of the traps of the drains?

A.Well, the water does not flow away from the drains, and the mosquitos are there.

Q.—Give Mr. Lau or Mr. Fung a list of your fokis over at that pawnshop in Yaumati. I would like to look into that question of the concreting of the floor.

A. Yes.

119.-KU FAI SHAN, declared and cautioned :-

Mr. Lau Chu Pak-What does the linewashing cost?

A.-Well, whitewashing nsed to cost a little over a dollar for a floor.

Q. How long ago?

A. The year before last. And last year it was $1.20 and $1.30.

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