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had neither oross wall nor lie-rods. Many large public buildings-S. John's Cathedral, 8. George's Hall, and such like places-had walla exceeding 35 feet in length, without a return or cross wall. He could not say what the thickness of the walls of these buildings was. Witness personally looked after the houses on K.I.L. 1,108 after his return from Japan, and also those on K.L.L. 1,118, and during his in- spection of those fifty houses he noticed there was something wrong hundreds of times; for instance the northern wall of the most northerly house on K. I. L. 1,108 was built out of plumb. That wall had been entirely pulled down and reconstructed.
Mr Looker, rising, objected to the line of examination on the ground of its irrelevancy, The matter of the houses that had collapsed was what they were dealing with, and it was entirely irrelevant on the part of Mr. Dennys to aks questions with regard to other houses.
Mr. Dennys-I shall have a great miny questions to ask with ref renes to the other Louses in these blocks.
Witness And I can refuse to answer. Mr. Dennys-Yes, and the jury can draw their own conclusions. ·
was
His Worship overruled the objection. The examination was accordingly resumed at the point of interruption, and witness sid he
aware that cracks had developed in the wall which had been rebuilding. The south wall at the end of the block of houses on Lot 1,107 was being pulled down by witness's orders, because it showed signs of weakness after the typhoon of 2nd August. These sigus of weakness were cracks, and similar indications of instability were appar ut in other walls. The houses, however, were not yet out of the contractor's hands, and were unoccupied.
This caused Mr Looker again to object to Mr. Dennys's questions; what was the use of conducting investigations in regard to houses that were not occupied ?
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
not remember how many party walls on Lot (1,108 were cracked, but those he had mentioned
were the worst: He could not tell the Court, how many party walls on these two lols were cracked but it was very likely that in most of the party walls there was some indication; of cracks in the back portions With regard to the southerly wall of the southern- most house on Lot 1,197 the sime thing Thero happened to it.
were cracks right through. The whole gable wall ha la tendoney to fall out, commencing at the level of the first floor. There were cracks just at the front of the verandab where the south wall parted from the gable With reference to the most southerly house, tho gable wall had a tendency to fall out; there was no sinking of the foundatios of the wall. The reason of that tendency to fall out was the softening of the mortar joints.
Mr. Dennys-It comes to this, does it not. that all four gable walls of thes, two blocks had a tendency to full outwards, and that the back wall of both b'ocks also had a tendency to fall outwards?
Witness --That is so as regards the back wall of both blocks, and also the north and south walls of K LL. 1.17, but not as regards the gable walls of n.L.L. 1,108,
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[October 6, 1902.
On the 30th alt. Mr. R. K. Leigh gave farther evidence of a technical nature. The senior partner of the Loong Cheong firm the contractors, was named Tam Ling, and he it was who looked after the execution of the
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or new
The result of
work. It was often the case that in a con-. tract the work connected with the various trades included therein-bricklaying, carpen tering, etc.—was sub-let, but in the present case, so far as witness knew, there had been no sub-contracting. Section 48 of the speci- fications provided for the use of the best Canton hard red brick, but there were more than one class of that kind of brick, the difference coming in in the clay and the burning There were three grades, so to speak, and the difference in the price of each might be about $10 per 10,000; thus, if the first grade cost 865 per 10,060, the second grade would run about $55. Canton red brick was always cheaper in winter than in summer, and the price just now of 10,000 of the finest grade would run from $5 to $70; the save quantity of Amoy bricks purchased in Hongkong would cost about $135 Shell-lime (ased in the mixing of mortar), as employed in Hongkong, sometimes contained foreign mixtures which impurities all tended to reduce the utility of Continuing, witness said the norther gable the limo, the quality of which had also deteri- wall cracked owing to the outward tendency of orated of late years in the Colony. The houses
in Kowloon City Rod were the back wall; it was pulled down shortly after his return from Japan. The southern gable work, but the length of time that a house wall on K. I. L. 1,107 was pulled down shortly remained green" depended on the state of the after the typhoon of 2nd August last. Witnes's atmosphere and the weather generally. With did not make any report to the Land Invest-reference to Cauton briks, witness continued, ment Co, nor did he give notice to the D.P.W. these were not uniform in size, nor were they of his intention to pull this wall down; that properly proportioned with regard to their was au omission. Under the Ordinance, how. length, width, and thicknes. ever, architects had power, in cases of emergency building with ill-proportioned bricks as the to act without notifying the D.P.W. Speak leaving of wide joints, so necessitating the nse iug generally, said witness, there was no of a greater quantity of mortar; varying in settlement of the foundations of K. I. L. 1.17 siz as they did, the bricks further necessitated and 1,108. and the ground-story walls, of all thes¦ wida, horizonal joints, which made proper houses were in good condition Witness heard: bonding difficult. Mr. Donnys said the enquiry was the enquiry of the collapse of Nos. 30 and 32 ou the moru of his Worship in his capacity of coroner, anding of 19th July, the morning following the as his Worship's mouth-piece he had every accident, and he wout over and made au inspec. right to ask these questions.
tion. He met Mr. Chatham on his way to the His Worship-Yes, that is so. I think the scene, and on arrival there they found Mr. questions are quite relevant.
Tooker. Roughly speaking, the northern wall of No. 30 collapsed from near the front wall back almost to the c-k-house wall, and down to the level of the first fi or-that was to say, the two upper storys had fallen down, the roof giving way first. As to No. 32, its condition was very similar, with the material difference, however, that whilst the wall at No. 30 fell out, that at No. 32 fell in Witness was of opinion that the wall of No. 3) fell out first, and that No. 32 did not collapse of itself. Both outside walls had two coats of plaster, which meant about half-au-inch of plaster. Simply looking at No. 3), witness's first impression as to the cause of its collapse was that the wind hal blown out the end wall, but from the numbr of collapses and of other walls seriously
not actually damaged, thou sh
collapsed. which cams under his personal observation between the typhoon of 18th July and the cessation of the heavy rains of 3rd or 4th August, it was evident to witness that some other canso was at work besides the wind alone. He now attributed the falling of the northern wall of No.30 to the softening of the mortar joints thus causing the wal to become out of plumb and ultimately to fall out. (Mr. Le gh illus- trated his meaning by the aid of some books.). In
This concluded the examination of the wit- No. 30 there were four tie rods, and is No. 32 six. From the appearance of the waster-plate; fas- ness, and Mr. Looker rose to cross-question
him. tened to the tie-rods, it seemed to witness that
Before beginning, however, he drew his Worship's attention to a misprint in the the brickwork must have become softened right through; by brickwork he meant both bricks published account of Monday's proceedings, the aud mortir. Th breaking strain of each tie-breaking strain of certain tie-rods being set rod was 31 tous, and it was evident that with these tie-rods tha wall of No. 30 could not have fallen down had it not been that the brickwork
In reply to further questions, witness said some of the damaged walls had been pulled down and their rebuilding proceeded with. He did not give nolice to the D. P. W. of such demoli. tion and reconstructions because he did not consider that it was required.
Mr. Dennys- Do you consider that these houses would be safe, with their party walls in in the event of a their present conditi n typhoon?
Witness-We are doing the worst walls first; it is impossible to do everything at once, A typhoon might blow down everything.
Mr. Dennys objected to the answer, and wit- ness added-I consider they would be safe, except in the case of a bad typhoon. If the wind blew hard enough it would blow down every house in the Colony.
Mr. R. K. Leigh was agaiu pat into the box on the 29th ult. He considered, bo said, that the houses on Lot 1,107 as well as on Lot 1,108 would have ben safe except in the case of a bad typhoon. With the exception of the two end ones he believed the houses on Lot 1,107 were occupied now. Nos. 6 and 8 were, he thought, occupied. he could not swear, however, to that. He was not taking any steps to pull down the party wall between Nos. 6 and 8. There had been no sinking of the foundations in the houses on Lots 1,107 and 1,108 that he could ses,
Ile did not attrib ite
the cracks in the party will batw en 6 and 8 t any defect in the party will bu: to the t ndancy of the back wall to go out. There was no settlement in the foundations of the back wall. He attributed this going out of the back will to the joints of the brick work becoming softened by continuous rain and thus being unable to staud the pressure of the upper portion of the wall. This softening in the back wall had taken place mostly at the level of the first floor. With reference to houses Nos. 52, 54, 56 and 58 on Lot 1,108, exactly the same thing had happened to them-softening of the mortar joints, causing the walls of the two aper floors to fall out, the ground floor being, in fact, uninjured. He could
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had becomes softened that the washer plates pulled through. To witness's mind the collapse of this wall was chiefly due to the disintegration of the brickwork. The fact that the houses were new rendered them more liable to climate wear, for the reason that the mortar would would not have properly set. If the wall had been coated with tar or paint, or some other similar material, the wall never would have collapsed, as matters stood, the rain had been blown in through the plaster by the wind, and thus penetrated the brickwork.
If the external wall of No. 39 had bem built of cement mortar, it would not have collapsed, but witness did not think it would have stood had it been built of Amoy bricks, though in his opinion they would not have become sodden to th same extent as Canton red bricks; Amoy bricks also would Witness have allowed of closer juinting. reiterated his opinion that a coating of tar or paint would have prevented the collapse. With reference to Harry Audersen, the overseer engaged by witness, it was his duty to watch the building work on the honses. Andersen was first employed to look after the construction of a sea-wall on the reclamation on K.M.L. €9, and when this was nearly finished be was engaged as overseer of the fifty houses oл K.I.L. 1,107, 1,108, and 1,118. Other work came in from the Land Investment C, and finally Auder.on had charge as overser of 118 houses, 5) being iu Kowloon City Road and 63 in Haughom. An- dersen had ben employed by witness for about three years: bis former profession was that of asilor, and he was a Norwegian by nation. ality. Ia answer to another question by. Mr. Dennys, witness said that between December, 1901, and March, 1902, the whole 118 houses were under Anderson's charge. At home a clerk of works looking after such houses would get about £3 a week-10 a day; Andersen's wage at first was $2 a day and $5 a month travelling expenses; ultimately he got a rise of $15, but the $5 for travelling expenses was knocked off.
down as öl tous, whereas in reality it was only 31 tons. Mr. Looker viewed the opportunity as a favourable one for restating his opinion that the proceedings of the enquiry should not be published till their conclusi n, and then only if no one was held criminally liable, on the ground that such publication might prejudice a jury. That was the only reason for the application, and he wished to state that neither he nor his clients, Messrs. Leigh & Orange, desired on other grounds to stifle the publica- tion of the proceedings of the enquiry. An impression to that effect appeared to have got about, but it was an entirely erroneous one.
Mr. A. Shelton Hooper, secretary of the
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