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usually takes the form of so-called partnership agreement, which, for reasons beyond my comprehension, Council has for some time past seen fit to countenance and approve. In all the cases which have come before the Disciplinary Select Committee during the last 11 months very few did not reveal the fact that the stallholders have not, in one form or other, transferred their rights to some financiers and consequently control of the stalls have completely gone out of their hands.
I have grave doubts as to the advisability of continuing the practice of granting cooked food stall licences purely on welfare grounds. Those who are considered eligible on welfare grounds are not necessarily competent or financially capable to run a cooked food stall. Since the primary object of control by this Council is for health reasons, is it not logical that cooked food stalls should be run along the same lines as, for instance, restaurants, that is by those who are experienced in the business.
I also recommend for consideration by this Council that the proposal to establish hawker bazaars should also apply to cooked food stalls. By confining these stalls in certain specified areas, this Council will have a greater measure of control over them besides reducing unnecessary congestions in busy streets. The idea of cooked food stall bazaars is not altogether new. I know they have been established and run very successfully and competently in Singapore for many years.
Although in principle I agree that some form of control over wall stalls is necessary, yet I share Mr. R. C. Lee's apprehension, though for different reasons, as regards the proposal that all wall stalls should be licensed. Under the existing law, licensing of hawkers is confined to those trading in public places and a public place is defined as a place to which the public have access. Bearing in mind that a great number of the wall stalls are in a recess and therefore entirely on private properties to which the public need not necessarily have a right of access, it will be difficult to insist on compulsory licensing without having to make some fundamental changes of the existing law; and where is one to draw the line between a wall stall in a recess and an ordinary stall in the front portion of the premises?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
207
MR. A. DE O. SALES :- Mr. Chairman, may I say how greatly impressed I am with this magnum opus on hawkers. I wish to congratulate you, Mr. Bernacchi and Mr. Bray on the excellence of your report and the recommendations which you have put forward.
I do not wish you to think, Mr. Chairman, that I am sounding a discordant note when I say that this Council ought to know a hawk from a handsaw when dealing with hawkers. I refer in particular to paragraph 92.
Mr. Chairman, my lawyer friends on this side of the Council have told me to ignore your Hawkers Ordinance because it is far too complicated for an Urban Councillor, let alone for a genuine hawker to understand the provisions of the law. I go by the normal acceptation of the term hawker when I approach your paragraph No. 92. A hawker is a person who carries his goods about for the purpose of selling them. Therefore, categories 1 and 2 would apply to the report and the recommendations which you are now making. I could even agree that category 4, "Itinerants Proper", would apply if I were to accept the definition that to hawk is also to clear one's throat rather noisily. But when it comes to cooked food hawkers, Mr. Chairman, I wish the Council would call a spade a spade. Cooked food stalls are no more hawkers; they have assumed the proportions of small businesses and should be regarded as such. As regards wall stalls, there is some reason for the recommendation made by my good friend, Mr. R. C. Lee, and supported by Mr. Y. K. Kan. Besides, I think that every available opportunity should be given to our very worried property-owners in Hong Kong to eke out a difficult existence with income derived from the letting of property for wall stalls.
Mr. Chairman, the success of your recommendations lies in their execution. It is in the manner of applying these recommendations that I am concerned today. I am wholly sympathetic with hawkers because they try to earn a living for themselves and for their dependants. Far too often they are preyed upon by triad societies and other protection gangs; they are even hawked upon by the Urban Services Department and other organizations. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I support your recommendations only to the extent that they should be applied in a manner which will not cause undue hardship, but will enhance
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usually takes the form of so-called partnership agreement, which, for reasons beyond my comprehension, Council has for sometime past seen fit to countenance and approve. In all the cases which have come before the Disciplinary Select Committee during the last 11 months very few did not reveal the fact the stallholders have not, in one form or other, transferred their rights to some financiers and consequently control of the stalls have completely gone out of their hands.
I have grave doubts as to the advisability of continuing the practice of granting cooked food stall licences purely on welfare grounds. Those who are considered eligible on welfare grounds are not necessarily competent or financially capable to run a cooked food stall. Since the primary object of control by this Council is for health reasons, is it not logical that cooked food stalls should be run along the same lines as, for instance, restaurants, that is by those who are experienced in the business.
I also recommend for consideration by this Council that the proposal to establish hawker bazaars should also apply to cooked food stalls. By confining these stalls in certain specified areas, this Council will have a greater measure of control over them besides reducing unnecessary congestions in busy streets. The idea of cooked food stall bazaars is not altogether new. I know they have been established and run very successfully and com- petently in Singapore for many years.
Although in principle I agree that some form of control over wall stalls is necessary, yet I share Mr. R. C. Lee's apprehension, though for different reasons, as regards the pro- posal that all wall stalls should be licensed. Under the existing law, licensing of hawkers is confined to those trading in public places and a public place is defined as a place to which the public have access. Bearing in mind that a great number of the wall stalls are in a recess and therefore entirely on private properties to which the public need not necessarily have a right of access, it will be difficult to insist on compulsory licensing without having to make some fundamental changes of the existing law; and where is one to draw the line between a wall stall in a recess and an ordinary stall in the front portion of the premises?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
207
say
how
MR. A. DE O. SALES :-Mr. Chairman, may I greatly impressed I am with this magnum opus on hawkers. I wish to congratulate you, Mr. Bernacchi and Mr. Bray on the excellence of your report and the recommendations which you have put forward.
I do not wish you to think, Mr. Chairman, that I am sounding a discordant note when I say that this Council ought to know a hawk from a handsaw when dealing with hawkers. I refer in particular to paragraph 92.
Mr. Chairman, my lawyer friends on this side of the Council have told me to ignore your Hawkers Ordinance because it is far too complicated for an Urban Councillor, let alone for a genuine hawker to understand the provisions of the law. I go by the normal acceptation of the term hawker when I approach your paragraph No. 92. A hawker is a person who carries his goods about for the purpose of selling them. Therefore, categories 1 and 2 would apply to the report and the recom- mendations which you are now making. I could even agree that category 4, "Itinerants Proper", would apply if I were to accept the definition that to hawk is also to clear one's throat rather noisily. But when it comes to cooked food hawkers, Mr. Chairman, I wish the Council would call a spade a spade. Cooked food stalls are no more hawkers; they have assumed the proportions of small businesses and should be regarded as such. As regards wall stalls, there is some reason for the recommenda- tion made by my good friend, Mr. R. C. Lee, and supported by Mr. Y. K. Kan. Besides, I think that every available opportunity should be given to our very worried property-owners in Hong Kong to eke out a difficult existence with income derived from the letting of property for wall stalls.
Mr. Chairman, the success of your recommendations lies in their execution. It is in the manner of applying these recom- mendations that I am concerned today. I am wholly sympathetic with hawkers because they try to earn a living for themselves and for their dependants. Far too often they are preyed upon by triad societies and other protection gangs; they are even hawked upon by the Urban Services Department and other organizations. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I support your recom- mendations only to the extent that they should be applied in a manner which will not cause undue hardship, but will enhance
Page 111 of 113
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