October 21, 1899.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
835
the standard required in other domestic | of secure the free circulation of the air. "subject, because it does not affect us one way buildings, although their arrangement may These provisions if strictly enforced will or the other, but it affects the colony for vary in matters of detail,
materially improve the condition of the nu- "all time, or at least for the next sixty or Clause 8 embodies the recommendations merous tenement houses of the colony. They "seventy years." The Government is no of the Sanitary Board with respect to open will also, we imagine, materially increase doubt still animated by the same desire. aces at the rear of buildings erected after the rents, for with a diminution of the Mr. WHITEHEAD in his letter makes out a the passing of the Bill. Houses 10 feet in number of cubicles the demand will be cor- strong case, on financial grounds, for depth are required to have an open space of respondingly increased. From a pecuniary placing the new Post Office on the 8 square feet for each foot of width, that is point of view, therefore, the new law will Praya Reclamation site. The Hon. Director to say, a house 15 feet in width and 40 feet prove a hardship to the tenants, however of Public Works has also made out in depth will have to have an open space of beneficial it may be from a sanitary point of strong case, on financial grounds, in favour 120 square feet. The scale is a sliding one, view. Rents in Hongkong are already in- of the present site. The ordinary indivi- houses exceeding 40 feet but not exceeding ordinately high, and this aspect of the ques-dual, unversed in the intricacies of land 50 feet in depth being required to have an tion should receive the serious attention of values and the extent to which different open space of 10 square feet for each foot the Government. The remedy is to en- lots of ground can be utilised for building of width; exceeding 50 feet, but not ex- courage the population to spread outwards purposes, may possibly get out of his depth ceeding 60 feet, 12 square feet; and houses to the suburbs, and for this easy and cheap in trying to follow these financial argu- exceeding 60 feet, 14 square feet. This communication by tramway and ferry are ments closely. But in determining a question scale is the same as in the Bill introduced necessary. We have heard it suggested that which, as General BLACK said, will affect last year but which was not proceeded with. the coolie class could not afford to pay tram the colony for all time, or at least for the It is also provided, as in the former ares, which may be the case, but the next sixty or seventy years, it is not niceties Bill, that when the owner of a block classes slightly above the coolie class in the of finance that should be given the place of buildings agree to make a lane opening at social scale would no doubt patronise the of chief consideration. So long as neither either end upon a public street the width of suburbs if these were rendered accessible, of the schemes is beyond the reasonable the open space may be reduced according to as the corresponding classes do in European resources of the colony it seems to us that to a fixed scale, so that owners will sacrifice cities, and the houses they vacated would the better of the two ought to be rather less space by jointly making a lane become available for the accommodation of selected, even though it be the more than by each owner providing his houses these who either for pecuniary or other expensive. The new Post Office ought with separate yards. From a sanitary point considerations have to live in proximity to not only to be central and easily ac of view lanes are preferable to yards, as their work. The thing of first importance cessible, but it ought to be a building that they give a freer circulation of air.
is to get the city into a thoroughly sanitary will do credit to the colony and in which conditition, but concurrently with the mea- the community can take a legitimate pride. Bures taken for that purpose other measures Both the sites proposed possess strong re- should be taken to reduce as far as possible commendations and have strong partisans ; the inevitable hardship to the pockets of so strong in fact does feeling run on the the community, and especially those of the subject that considerable acrimony was im- labouring classes.
ported into the previous discussion and im- putatious of interested motives were ex- changed between some of the members of the Legislative Council. Taking the un- official members, we had on the one side Mr. CHATER and Mr. WHITEHEAD, and ou the other Mr. BELILIOS, Mr. BELL-IRVING,
Clause 6 of the Bill embodies the recom- mendations of the Sanitary Board with res- pect to the height of buildings erected on land acquired from the Crown after the passing of the Bill, and is more stringent in in this respect than the provisions of section 12 of Ordinance 15 of 1894 as amended by Ordinance 21 of 1897. Section 12 of Ordinance 15 of 1894 provides in sub- section A that in streets under 14 feet in width houses shall not exceed 35 feet
in height, and that where the street is
14 ft. in width but does not exceed 20 ft. buildings shall not exceed 46 ft. in height; and in sub-section B “all, other cases are provided for, including equally build- ings on land acquired from the Crown after the passing of the Ordinance and buildings in streets thereafter made on land already privately owned. The scale provided in the last named sub-section was as follows:-Width of str et 15 ft., height of building 25 ft.; street 20 ft., height of building 40 ft.; street 25 ft., height of building 45 ft.; street 80 ft., height of building 52 ft.; street 35 ft., height of building 65 ft.; street 40 ft., height of building 76 ft., the last named figure being the maximum height allowed without special permission of the Sanitary Board. These provisions of the old Ordin- ance are made more stringent by the new Bill to the extent that on land acquired from the Crown after the passing of the Ordinance no building shall exceed in height one and v half times the width of the street. Being confined to land hereafter acquired from the Crown this provision will have practically no effect in reducing the height of build- ings and so diminishing surface crowd- ing in already occupied areas, unless in cases where the Goverument resumes and subsequently re-sells land.
The important question of cubicles, mezzanine floors, and cocklofts is dealt with in sections 4 and 5 of the Bill, and these are the provisions which will have the most immediate effect in re- uncing overcrowding. In streets under 15 feet in width no cubicles are to be allowed except on the top floor, and nowhere, no matter what the width of the street, are cubicles to be allowed on the ground floor without the permission of the Sanitary Board. Other miuer provisions refer to the window ares and to the means to be adopted
OVERCROWDING AND THE RE- MOVAL OF BROTHELS.
(Daily Press, 17th October.) The increased demand for house accommo-
dation amongst the Chinese, which is likely to follow the enforcement of the provi- sions of the new Sanitary Bill, will be me- some extent by the intended removal of houses of ill fame from
to
the
more
Dr. Ho Kai, and Mr. WEI YUK. Assum ing that Mr. KESWICK shares the views of Mr. BELL-IRVING, whom he has re- placed on the Council, the division
congested parts of the town. There are will presumably remain the same to- said to be over four hundred houses with the subject last year, while we do not be- day. As was remarked in an article on one or of their more floors occupied as brothels. When these floors become avail- lieve that any one of these gentlemen would able for cennation by respectable Chi-consciously allow his judgment to be in- nese families they will afford considerable fluenced by his individual interests the fact temporary relief from the scarcity of accom-
may be taken note of for what it is worth modation that the proposed limitation of the number of cubicles will inevitably bring about. The relief will be shortlived, however, for with the increasing population all vaccant floors will rapidly fill up and the supply will again fall short of the demand. Advis- able as the removal of houses of ill fame from the centre of the town may be on general grounds, the effect the measure will have on the overcrowding problem is, we think, rather overrated. It is in the direction of facilitating and encouraging residence in the suburbs that the chief remedy for over- crowding is to be found.
THE NEW POST OFFICE,
(Daily Press, 20th October). The suggestion of the Hon. T. H. WHITE- HEAD, made in a letter to the Chamber of Commerce and published in another column, that a general meeting of the members of the Chamber should be called to pronoune an opinion on the best site for the new Post Office, should commend itself to the Commit tee of that body. The Government would no doubt welcome such an expression of opinion. When the subject was debated in the Le- gislative Council last year the then Acting Governor, General BLACK, Enid :-"The “Government has been most anxious to "know the real wish of the colony on this
that Mr. WHITEHEAD is the only one who is that some of the remainder would benefit uninterested in property. If it be granted by the removal of the Post Office it must benefit by its retention on the present site. also be granted that others would equally
Such being the position as regards the the Legislative Council it would be an recognised representatives of the public in advantage to have an expression of opinion from such a body as the Chamber of Com
merce,
THE LU-HAN RAILWAY AND BRITISH INTERESTS.
dis
(Daily Press, 18th October.) In yesterday's issue we reproduced from the Peking and Tientsin Times an item which must have produced a rather agreeable effect on the mind of the British reader. The statement was to the effect that the Imperial railway line from Lukow to Paoting, some eighty miles in length, constructed by Mr. KINDER, was handed over to the Belgian Syndicate on 30th September, and the following morning the foreign staff (by which we understand the British staff) left by the first train. The Faoting line is to form a section of the Peking and Hankow Railway. The trunk line was classed in the blue book as one of the projected undertakings tha
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