November 26, 1893.]
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and shown us in our private intercourse. (Ap- planse.)
The business of the meeting was then pro ceeded with.
MINUTES.
FINANCIAL,
On the motion of the ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY, Seconded by the ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER, financial minutes Nos. 16 to 22 were referred to the Finance Committee.
SANITARY BYE-LAWS.
On the motion of the ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY, seconded by the ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER, Sanitary Bye-laws regulating the use of cemeteries submitted by the Sanitary Board were approved.j
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT:
ern side of its magnificent harbour actually representation this boon to the pleasure of the belonging to another power, its forts at the colony and to its defence may be expected short eastern entrance commanded at short rifle rangely to begin. The Executive Council has directed The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY—Before by the Devil's Peak, and the end of its mine that this road be called “General Black's Link." | proceeding with the business of the day, I am fields almost touching the Chinese soil, the I feel and value the compliment and only ask sure your Excellency will excuse me if I say Bay of Kowloon within the precincts of its that the name may be shortened to "The Black that the official members of this Conncil are harbour but outside its jurisdiction. In June Liuk." I can hardly teach. you much about much indebted to your Excellency for the last a Convention was signed by which our finance; the revenue is increasing, the financial kind terins in which your Excellency has boundary line is pushed some 13 miles to position is sound, and taxation is light; but cost- spoken of the co-operation and zeal with which the north, thus sweeping away these anomalies ly works lie ahead. New Law Courts, New the official members of this Council have worked giving Hongkong room to expand, and more General Post Office, a new Government Resid-with your Excellency. I do not think I am than all preventing the passing into other hands ence at the Peak and other public works for flattering the Civil Service of this colony when of the roadstead of Lantau, and the safe har which money will have to be provided; in fact I say that loyal co-operation
all its Gover bours
interest is ory " no measures conducive naturally felt in Hongkong as to the position that under the able Director, the public works to the welfare of the colony are marks of the of the stations of the Maritime Customs. It of the future will be as magnificent and useful Civil Service of this colony. I think I may go seems to me only just and necessary that these as those undertaken in the past. It is beyond a little further than merely offer the warmest should recede with the new boundary-(ap. my province to do more than allude to the great thanks of the official members, and make myself plause) for it would be an abdication of sover- dramas that have been and are being enacted spokesman of all the Civil Servants. Many eignty if a foreign power were allowed to arcund us. We live in a history-making epoch of them have not been, perhaps, brought into...... exercise control within British waters. At the and changes are now in progress which will personal contact with your Excellency, but the same time I recognise that it is right that we powerfully affect the future destinies of the manner in which you have ruled, and given should aid the friendly Government of China five great nations of the world. Little Hong: your decisions, and the gentle and firm way in her task of protecting her revenue, made kong is not far removed from the centre of in which you have held the reins of office so difficult by the indented nature of the action, and its rulers may have a word to say to cannot but be admired by the members of our coast line, and to this end I have suggested the shaping of events. Sir Henry Blake will service. (Applause.) that opium should be stored in Government shortly arrive to assume the reins of govern- Godowns, and only issued on Government ment and I congratulate the colony on having permit. In legislation much useful but unob secured a chief so able and so experienced, and trusive work has been done. I may instance- have no doubt that the colony" will advance The minutes of the previous meeting were The Trade Marks Ordinance. The Liquor under his wise rule. I cannot retire from the | read and adopted as a correct record. Licences Ordinance, The Bank Note Ordinance. Presidency of this Council without thanking The increased issue of Bank notes has, from the Honourable Members for the zeal and at- causes well known to you all, been long deman- tention which they have brought to bear on ded and the enlarged circulation is proving a all matters submitted to them and for the great boon. The Queen's Recreation Ground kindly spirit which has animated all their Ordinance; in the last I have taken a great dealings with me. I have much pleasure in On the motion of the ACTING. COLONIAL interest, and I have some right to look upon it acknowledging the loyal and willing co-opera- SECRETARY, seconded by the ACTING COLONIAL as a bantling of my own. The recurrence of tion with which the Colonial Secretary and the TREASURER, the report of the Finance Com- the plague has forced on every thinking man
other official members have worked with me inmittee, No. 7, was adopted. the need of letting light and air into the blocks our joint task of carrying out the administra- of Chinese houses, which, full of human beings tion of the colony. (Applauso). in many cases, literally stand back to back in the City of Victoria, containing rooms into which the sun never enters, and where the fetid air bas no motion. Doctors and physic, good though they bo by themselves, are powerless to cure, while sun and air are sure preventives; and great as the task my be of bringing these natural agents into this reeking mass of humanity their admission must be secured by law. A bill is now before you which I admit does not go far enough, but it will at least be the beginning of a great reform. Many complaints have been made as to the shortcomings of the Post Office; a great deal of the confusion comes from retrenchment having been carried too far, and from the business having outgrown the building. I have sub- mitted recommendations to the Secretary of State which will, I trust, produce great im- provement in the department, in whose well- being every individual is concerned. Nearly allied to the Queen's Recreation Ground is the reservation of the rocky bluff on which stands the boulders called Sung Wang Toi or the Watch Towers of the Sung" which, as far as I can gather, is the only historical monument which links modern history with the old-world time. To make its reservation more certain, I applied to the Secretary of State for leave to bring in a bill to this end, and his permission is now on the sea. I regret that I will not have the pleasure of giring assent to it. A survey has been made of the Jubilee Road round the Island. If has been traced with easy gradients, and offers in the section between Aberdeen and Deep Water Bay, an important sanitary reform, for part of the scheme is to fill up and turf over the festering inlet, to which the leading medical men of the colony point as the source of the malaria which has so long marred the health of Aberdeen and the neighbourhood of Magazine Gap. I have nothing but the good of the community at heart, and I emphatically state that if you believe medical testimony, it is your duty to decree that this section be the first taken in hand. Health and pleasure and the wheels of progress, and 1 may add of bicycles, move on roads, and in my belief a great strengthening of the defence of this Island will take place when the tracing across the pathless barrier of Mount Cameron and Mount Nicholson is broadened into a road. Shortly after arriving in this colony I urged the Government to take this in hand on public grounds, and it is with great pleasure that by an agreement effected on my
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The Hon. C. P. CHATER-Your Excellency, on behalf of my colleagues and myself, the unofficial members, I have to thank you indeed very much for what you have been pleased to say about us, and I should like to offer a few remarks on this occasion, being the last you will as Officer Administering the Government preside over this Council. During the 10 months you have filled the chair you have always shown anfailing tact in the conduct of the business of the Council and the utmost consideration for its members, and we have now to thank yon for that consideration and courtesy. Your Excellency has during the tenure of your office as Acting Governor been called upon to exercise a good deal of nice descrimination in several matters and you have never spared time or trouble in connection with the affairs of the colony. Your term of ad- ministration, it is interesting to remember, will always be memorable in our local annals as the year in which the extension of the boundaries of the colouy was secured, and the part you have taken in connection therewith will be a pleasant recollection to you when you are far away. In taking leave of your Excellency as the Pre- sident of the Council I trust you will have an equally useful field for your energies in some other part of our very wide Empire-(hear, hear)-and that your sterling qualities will be as highly and as fully appreciated as they are in this colony. (Applause.)
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VALUATIONS INCREASED. The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS-I rise That the to move the following resolution :-" percentages on the valuation of tenements in Hok-ün and Kwo-lo-wan (the latter now known as Kowloon Marine Lot 40) at present payable as rates under the Rating Ordinance of 1888, as amended by Ordinance No. 5 of 1892, be altered from 7 per cent. to 9 per cent." The necessity for this resolution arises from the fact that the water mains at Kowloon are being extended to the villages named.
The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the motion was carried.
FURTHER PROVISION FOR THE SANITATION OF THE COLONY.
The CAPTAIN SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE I have the honour to move the first reading of a Bill entitled an Ordinance to make further provison for the sanitation of the colony and to repeal certain enactments of the closed houses and insanitary dwellings Ordinance, 1894. It is not customary to treat in any detailed man- ner of the arguments in favour of a Bill on the first reading, and I do not propose to do so on the present occasion. I will only say that per- haps no more important measure has ever been brought before the Council than this Bill, and I am sure the members of this Council feel it will give your Excellency great satisfaction if hereafter you shall learn that the Bill has passed into law in such a form as to be of real service to the cause of sanitary improvement in this colony. However, there are one or two points in the Bill so inaccurate or contradictory that I think it is desirable to draw attention to them, as it is probable they will deserve the consideration of the Government before the Bill is brought up for a second reading. The first point is in section four, subsection e, the latter portion of which reads as follows And such floor area shall not in any case be less than that laid down in the substituted section 67 of the Public Health Ordinance, 1887, as set out in section of Ordinance 15 of
Hon. Ho KAI-Your Excellency, as senior representative of the Chinese, perhaps I will be permitted to add a few remarks to those that have fallen from the senior unofficial member. On behalf of the Chinese, I would acknowledge to your Excellency that they appreciate your wise and benevolent administration to the fullest extent, and the only regret the Chinese community have is that that reign, so beneficent and so conducive to their welfare, is all but too short. When you vacate the chair of this Council, when you leave the administration of the Government, the Chinese will feel that they will have lost a wise ruler as well as a true friend. Personally, I have to thank your Ex- cellency for the many kind acts that you have shown towards myself and my colleague, the Hon. Wei Ynk, thus rendering what otherwise would be a difficult task, to represent the Chi-1894." The fact is that there is no regula- nese in this Council, an easy matter and also a pleasant one. I can assure your Excellenoy that long afterwards we will remember your kindness to us, and also the support and assist- ance you have given to us in our public capacity
tion regarding floor area per se, The num. ber of persons who may inhabit a domestic building is limited in accordance to the floor area that is to say only one adult person to every 30 square feet of floor area-and-ss, it
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