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12-Gives power to a Magistrate to order removal of illegal structures. No compensation to be paid.
13. Every Contravention of the Ordinance to be deemed an offence. Secretary on Manager of a Company to be liable.
14.--Offences in respect of which no penalty is otherwise provided to be punishable by a fine of $50 or one month's imprisonment, with a farther fine of 85 a day for a continuing offence. 15-Repeals section 7 and sub-section b of section 8 of the Closed Houses and Insanitary Dwellings Ordinance.
OBJECTS AND REASONS,
The object of this Bill is to improve the sanitation of houses in this Colony by making minimum open spaces of certain dimensions compulsory at the rear of every building in the Colony, no matter at what date such building
was erected.
Hitherto the difficulty in the way of the Health Authorities has been that the beneficial sanitary provisions of recent Health Ordinances have bad no retrospective effect, but have only applied to buildings erected since the passing of such Ordinances.
The provisions of this Bill are based to a certain extent upon the Report, dated the 9th March, 1898, of the Insanitary Properties Commission which was appointed by the late Governor, Sir William Robinson, but whilst in some respects this Bill effects a compromise between the views of the different Commis- sioners, in other respects goes beyond their recommendations.
With reference to sub-section (a.) of clause 4 of this Bill, which forbids cubicles or partitions in houses fronting streets of a width of less than 15 feet except on the top floor, it will be noted that two out of the five Commissioners were of opinion that in such houses no cubicles should be allowed on the ground floors, while the remaining three Commissioners recom- ,mended that in such houses no cubioles should
be allowed on any floor.
With reference to sub-section (b.) of clause 4 of this Bill, it will be observed that two out of the five Commissioners were of opinion that in houses fronting on lanes and streets of over 15 feet in width no cubicles should be allowed on the ground floor without the permission of the Sanitary Board.
Sub-section (c.) of clause 4 of the Bill needs no arguments to recommend it.
Sub-section (d.) of clause 4 of the Bill stands in place of sub-section (b.) of section 8 of Ordinance 15 of 1894, which latter sub-section (repealed by this Ordinance) provided that the partition walls should not be of a greater height than 8 feet and that a space of 4 feet should be left between the top of the partitions and the ceiling or underside of the joists.
Sub-section (e.) of clause 4 of of the Bill lays down similar requirements with regard to win. dow area to those which are laid down by sub- section (a;) of section 8 of Ordinance 15 of 1894
The first part of sub-section (f.) of the same olause is intended to provide for a free current of air circulating underneath the bottom of the boards forming the cubicle, and the latter part of the sub-section provides that no structure shall be permitted in a cubical of a greater height than the maximum height allowed for the cubicle itself and that no cover or roof shall
be allowed to a cubicle,
Such provision for securing the free circula- tion of air are obviously desirable.
Sub-section (g.) of clanse 4 has been rendered necessary by the fact that it is not an uncom- mon practice to so arrange the cubicles in Chinese dwellings that one oubicle is built up against a window and thus appropriates almost the whole of the air coming in through that window to the detriment of the ventilation of the other cubicles on the same floor. It will be noted that two out of the five Commissioners recommended that no cubicles erected or to be re-erected in future should be placed nearer than six feet to any window the area of which is included in caloulating the required window area of one-tenth of the floor area,
Sub-section (h.) of olause 4 imposes a mini- mum limit on the floor area of cubicles.
Clause 5 of the Bill dealing with mezzanine floors and cocklofts appears to require no special comment. It takes the place of section 7 of Ordinance 15 of 1894 which is repealed by this Bill
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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[October 21, 1999.
8-His Excelloney Sir Wm. Robinson, then Governor, appointed a Committee on 8th Sep- tømber 1894, "to report on the condition of the Government Offices and the desirability of locating the varions Departments under one roof." The Committee consisted of the Hon. the Director of Public Works (F. A. Cooper), the Hon. the Colonial Treasurer (A. M. Thom- son) and Messrs C. P. Chater, C.M.G., A. McConachie, and Sir T. Jackson⠀⠀ After due enquiry the members reported unanimously on 23rd November, 1896, as follows:—
Clause 6 of the Bill embodies the recommen. dations of the Sanitary Board with respect to the height of buildings erected on land acquired from the Crown after the passing of this Bill, and is more stringent in this respect than the provisions of section 12 of Ordinance 15 of 1894 | as amended by Ordinance 12 of 1897.
Clause 7 contains the recommendations of the Sanitary Board with regard to the minimum area of backyard in existing buildings. It goes a little further than the report of the Insanitary Properties Commission in that it aims at securing a minimum open space in the 'It is desirable for many reasons that the rear of fifty feet instead of forty feet.
several Government Offices should be situated Sub-section (c.) allows for the Governor-in-close together, if possible under one roof, as Council making exceptions in certain special cases and is rendered necessary owing to the peculiar construction of certain back-to-back houses the floors of which overlap one another and render the provision of an open space in the rear practically impossible.
Clause 8 contains the recommendations of the same Board with respect to open spaces, or in the alternative lanes, at the rear of buildings erected after the passing of this Bill.
Clauses 9 and 10 of the Bill do not appear to require any special comment.
Clause 1 of the Bill lays down a definite time within which the alterations required by
this Bill must be made.
Clause 12 confers power upon a Magistrate to order the removal of an illegal structure.
Clause 13 lays down what are to be deemed to be offences under the Bill, and clause 14 provides penalties for offences in respect of which no penalty is otherwise provided for by the Bill.
Clause 15 and the schedule deal with repeals.
HENRY E. POLLOCK, Acting Attorney General.
HON. T. H, WHITEHEAD ON THE NEW POST OFFICE.
We have received from the Hon. T. H. White-
head a copy of the following letter addressed by him to the Chamber of Commerce:
Hongkong, 17th October, 1899. Dear Sir,-In connection with the Estimates for next year, the following appeared in His Excellency the Governor's printed statement, read at the meeting of the Legislative Council on Wednesday, 11th inst:-
"The most pressing public work at the pre. sent moment is the building for the New Law Courts, which blocks the way for the improve. ment of the Post Office, a building entirely insufficient and unsuited for the postal require ments of the Colony. The plans for the Law Courts were returned on January 21st to Lon- don with some suggestions for improvements I have written urging that they shall be sent out with the least possible delay."
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2-In the Colonial Estimates for 1900 the Council is not asked for any vote in respect of new premises for a Post Office. It is painfully evident from the Governor's statement that the building of the new Post Office will not be commenced until the construction of the new Law Courts' building is completed. In conse- quence of the unnecessary delays, vacillating and irresolute policy hitherto followed regard ing the construction of the new Goverment Offoes, it is highly probable that the new Court House building may not be completed within four years from this date, if even then. It therefore naturally follows that the new Post Office building will not be commenced nutil after the Legal Departments move into their new building, say about four years hence, or in 1903. The construction of the new Post Office building will take about two if not three years; consequently the Colony will not have a new Post Office for say six or seven years, or until 1905 or 1906. The present Post Office building is and has been for some time past wholly inadequate for the Colony's requirements, badly lighted, ill-ventilated, and so cramped that there is not sufficient room to sort two heavy mails at the same time. It is notorious that this is and has been for years With the past the actual state of affairs. natural increase and growth in the work of the Post Office during the next six or seven years what will it be then? The position of this important Government Department will have become positively intolerable, unworthy of and in every respect discreditable to the Colony.
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much loss of time and, inconvenience to the public would be thereby obviated, and business greatly facilitated. Were it not for the fact that the present offices at St. John's Place are in a good structural condition, are suitably and con- veniently situated for the meeting of Council, and the accomodation afforded for the Colonial Secretary's Department appears adequate, we should recommend that in any project for the erection of new buildings accommodation should be provided for hat department.
14
The Post Office and Treasury buildings, which had been erected in 1846 for a house for the Registrar General, on the site of the pre- sent Post Office and Treasury, and subsequently altered for the purpose of serving as a Post Office, were in 1864 found to be quite ing adequate to meet the requirements of the Postal Department; it was therefore decided to pull them down and erect a new Post Office.
"The present main buildings, which were completed in 1867 with certain additious and alterations carried out in 1884 and 1885, consist of a ground floor and basement occupied by the Post Office and an upper floor occupied by the Treasury Department.
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The Post Office is badly lighted and ill- iu- rentilated and the Treasury Offices are conveniently arranged.
..
The present buildings are about thirty years old and though the walls are still sound renewal of the internal fittings and woodwork throughout will shortly necessitate a siderable expenditure if the occupation of the building is continued.
Con-
"The accommodation in the Iost Office, in spite of the recent arrangement by which the offices of Attorney-General and Crown Solicitor have been placed at the disposal of the department, is so cramped that there is not sufficient room to sort two heavy mails at the same time, while the space devoted to the business of the Parcels Post is insufficient to secure the shfe custody of parcels. In fact, the requirements of the colony have entirely outgrown the ocommodation at present avail- able.
For the Treasury a Strong Room and a Stamp Room are required, also a large room, easily ac- cessible to the public, for accountants and ca. shiers, and better accommodation for the clerks are greatly needed.”
4. The members of said Committee further unanimously reported in favour of the Law Courts, Land Office, &c., being erected on the site on the Iraya Reclamation immedia tely in front of the City Hall, and that the Registrar General, Treasury, Post Office and Public Works Departments should be accom- modated in a new building to be erected on the site also on the new Praya Reclamation immedi- ately to the north of that on which the new Law Courts, &c., are to be built. The two sites in question are Government laud, have lain fallow for several years, and are still lying fallow.
5.--Sir Wm Robinson's term of office expired in 1898, when he returned to England, and the Director of Public Works (Mr. Cooper) was trausferred to Ceylon in 1897. General Black administered the Government from February to November, 1898, and a new Director of Public Works (the Hon. R. D. Ormsby) arrived in the Colony on 20th October, 1897. In consequence of these changes, the two years' work of the committee appointed in September, 1894, and the quanimous recommendations of ita members were cast aside and in their stead the fresh proposals of the new Director of Pablio Works were brought forward and adopted iù opposition to the reasons and arguments of the elected Representatives of the people on the Lagislative Council. The result is most natural- protracted, prolonged, and costly delays and the
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