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May 27, 1907.]
THE COMMISSION
A DAMNING REPORT.
On May 16th the members of the Legislative Council received copies of the report of the Commission that has been investigating Sanitary Administration. It has 296 pages. The first sitting was on May 21st 1906, and in all, 60 meetings, extending over 215 hours, have been held. In all 183 witnesses have been examined,
of whom 134 were Chinese. After seven meet. ings, the Commission felt obliged to take up the question of corruption. Following is the text of the report from that point :-
11. We were forced to the conclusion that not only great irregularities but corruption and bribery were rampant in the Sanitary Depart ment. This was unfortunately by no means confined to the native Assistants, Interpreters
and rubordinate Officials, but there was reason to fear extended throughout the staff of British Inspectors.
ROOD
12. Although the meetings of the Commission were held in camera, the only means by which such an enquiry could b satisfactorily prosecuted in such a community as this, it was apparent that as regards the proceetings of the Commission, secrecy had not been maintained.
13. We had reason to believe that certain contractors and others, having dealings with the members of the Sanitary Department were destroying or altering their books, and taking other measures to prevent the Com- mission from finding out the exact extent to which irregularities had been carried.
14. In June therefore, the Commissioners turned their attention to this question.
15. A large number of Chinese witnesses were summoned without warning to appear before the Commission and to produce their books.
:
16. The result was far from satisfactory. A number of the firms failed to produce their proper books, although it is evident that such books must have been kept, this being the invariable custom among Chinese business men 17. Some witnesses left the Colony. In many cases, though books of sorts were produced, it was clear that these were subsidiary rather than the proper books of the firm, which had disappeared or been tampered with.
in a
18, It has been stated that this was measure due to suggestions made by certain of the Sanitary Staff who had been involved in irregular transactions, while evidence has been adduced that at least one of the Sanitary Inspectors attempted to persuade a certain witness to leave Hongkong, and in another instance did actually by threats of violence drive a second from the Colony.
19. Among those books produced were`some belonging to certain firms holding Govern- ment contracts,
which clearly
shewed that payments, in many cases of considerable amount, had been reg 1 rly made to Sanitary Inspectors and other Officials. The correctness of these entries have been sworn to by members of the native firms interested.
20. The Commissioners cannot but consider that they are justified in believing there was some similar reason for the non-production of the necessary books by the firms already referred
to.
CHINA OVERLAND, TRADE REPORT.
937
failure in administration, the Commissioners, This redraft was intended to be final but before have decided to deal in detail with certain the ink was dry on it, it was found to be un.. sections of the Ordinance, pointing out where workable in many respects and wholesale hardship exists, the causes for complaint, and amendments had to be made. the resultant injury done to property and consequently the general prosperity of the Colony.
24. We then deal with the alterations which appear desirable in order to render the working of the Ordinances more efficacious, and at the community. same time less harassing and onerous to the
25. Of all the drastic sections of a very drastic Ordinance, section 175 probably affects property owners more seriously than soy other. It is defective in the fundamental principles of equity inasmuch as it sacrifices vested rights without comp nsation. To quote from the petition of the land wners to His Excellency the Governor regarding the Public Health and Buildings Bill, September 28th, 1902, "o Constitution "or has oftener been upheld by principle is more firmly established in our our Courts than the principle that without compensation a violation of the rights of private property will not be permitted even for the public good," yet we find that this section, retrospective as it is, in its application, bas already caused the property owner of Hongkong losses computed at several lakhs of
dollars.
26 There can be no doubt that if this section of the Ordinance continues to be enforced with out compensation, the losses will be still more serious.
27. One of the witnesses, no less an authority than the Building Authority himself, admitted that the enforcement of this section in respect of a property upon which the owner had obtained four-fifths of the purchase price on mortgage,
Government confiscation.
was equivalent to
28. The mortgagor so far from finding his property enhanced by the costly re-construc- tions, finds it seriously depreciated in value, as teuants invariably demand lower rents in consideration of the available accommodation being reduced. His margin gone, his rents reduced to such an extent as to leave him unable to pay the interest on his mortgage, the unhappy mortgagor, if he be a man of small means, has to relinquish his property at a heavy sacrifice or go into bankruptcy.
29. When this circumstance is duly considered in conjunction with the losses incurred from the concreting and lime washing regulations, there is small room for wonder that Chinese property has, as is affirmed by several witnesses, depreciated 30 to 35 per cent. it value.
30. The tendency of the Chinese to send their families away from the Colony is becoming inore and more marked (vide census returns which show an actual Chinese population, exclusive of new Kowloon, of 287,583 as against the estimate given in the Report on the Health and Sanitary Condition of the Colony for the year 1905 of 338,873 exclusive of new Kowloon, or a shortage of 51,290 persons).
or:
4
ill
36. Even in its present form, it is a hasty and considered document. It teems with made worse by the employment of different ambiguous regulations and the confusion is phrases and words to express the same meaning. Sub-section 2 of this very section (175) is a onse in point.
37. Neither
Principal Civil Medical Officer, nor Medical the Building Authority, Officer of Health, or anyone else is able to say. exactly what it does mean, but the inference is that houses of more than 40 feet in depth having two main frontages in different streets require double as much open space in the rear as is required by similar houses having only one frontage but which are back to back or about against a cliff.
has in fact been recognised by its non-en- 38. The unworkability of this sub-section forcement in the case of nearly all the many Chinese houses in the Colony that are more than 50 feet in depth.
39. The Honourable the Director of Public Works admitted in his evidence that the Government had received been for years receiving revenue in the shape premia and had
of rates and Crown rent from land which should have been devoted to wider roads and more roads and scavenging lanes.
40. In other words that the Government had been profiting by the insanitary condition of the Colony. That being so, some compensa- tion at least should be made to property owners for such costly re-constructions as come under this section (175), and the consequent shrin- kage in the earning power of the property.
41. It must be remembered that in the great majority of cases, the Government through the agency of the Sanitary Board in forcing owners of property to comply with sub section 1 of section 175, compel them to create a breach of section 140 in respect of kitchen space.
42. Hitherto the Government have forced the
compliance on the one hand and winked at the attendant breach on the other, which is obviously indefensible on any ground whatever.
most undersirable state of affairs and quite
a
43. The numerous changes in our laws respecting property and the fact that these changes have in many instances had the effect of reducing values, coupled with the uncertainty that prevails as to still harsher laws being enacted. render businesslike calonlations almost impossible, engender a feeling of uneasiness and want of confidence, and thus keep investors aloof.
altered to read “**
IF
44. The origin of sub-section 1 of 175 can be traced as far back as Ordinance 34 of 1899 (section 7, sub-section A) which reads: "Every domestic building "must be provided with an open space in the rear, &c, &c,'
45. In a subsequent Ordinance, No. 10 of 1901 (section 55, sub-section 1) the same clause was very domestic building must 31. Property in Hongkong until the last two be "provided by the owner with an open space in
has been one of the favourite the rear, &c,. &c. three years
The words added constituted investments of the Chinese community, and keen a most far reaching and radical alteration not- competition always ex sted whenever a property withstanding which the Attorney General in came into the market, but tablic Health and introducing the Consolidated Ordinance (10 of Buildings Ordinance of 1903cion 175 there-1901) to the Legislative Council said: "In of in particular) bas altered all chat,
substituting 8 single Ordinance for the fifteen it repealed it had been necessary to make some
found
wording of some of the enactments con. solidated
to preserve uniformity of language and prevent undue repetition but that nearly the whole of these amendments were purely formal and the substance of the law remained entirely unchanged."
32. Formerly it was the ouston for the vendors when parting with a property to allow ths or 4/5ths of the purchase money to remain on mortgage, and the Government would have been wise to encourage a practice which stimulated legitimate enterprise in property, and incidentally brought in much revenue to the Government coffers, but now such transactions usually spell ruin, and are consequently becom-
21. Evidence which in many cases appeared to implicate individual employes of the Govern- ment, having come to the knowledge of the Commissioners, these cases were investigated by them so far as possible and where a prima fac ́e case appeared to have been established, the evidence bearing on that oase was at once forwarded to the Government, as it appeared desirable this should be done, rather than all these matters should be kept in abeyance notiling rarer and rarer. our final report had been submitted to Your 33. It is doubtful, apart from the question of Excellency
equity, whether the enforcement of section 175 22. Turning now to the terms of the Com-without compensation is expedient on economic mission, the Commissioners in the first place would state that their enquiries into the working of the Ordinance all point to the conclusion, viz., that the Administration of the Sanitary and Building Regulations as carried out under the existing Ordinances is most unsatisfactory, both in the Administration and in many of their regulations.
23. In order to fully explain what appear to be the drawbacks in the regulations and the
grounds. As a direct result of such enforce- ment, Crown lands diminish in value and the assessable yalne of property decreases.
34. The Public
Health and Buildige Ordinance No. 1 of 1903 as originally drafte was (as was pointed out in the influentially signed petition against it) the work of a novice. 35. That the Government recognised this to a certain extent is certain by the fact of this being withdrawn and a redraft of the Ordinance made.
•
SO 88
alteration in the
46. It seems almost inconceivable that the Attorney General should have been so blind to the tremendous significance of these three words
· by the owner."
47. It has been shown in the evidence before the Commission that sub-section 1 of section 175 of No. 1 of 1903 which is an exact copy of section 55, sub-section 1 of 10 of 1901 has cost the landlords of Hongkong very large sums of money and will if not repealed cost them many tens of thousands of dollars more, for which there can be no doubt the addition of these three words "by the owner" in the 1901 Irdinance and their reproduction in the 1908 Ordinance are almost entirely responsible.
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