182
Less written off
for depreciation 31,183.38
707,000.00
Addition during the year 127,155.45
Plant and Buildings in Construction.
834,155.45
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
allusion has been made in the opening para- graph of this article. Reference is made to this dispatch now not ouly because it gives official sanción to the aspiration which the Sanitary Commission voiceil, but also bec1use it was in answer to a petition signed by early 400 prominent residents, including two who are now members of the Legislative Council-th- Hon. Mr. H. E. Pollock, K.C., and the Hon. | Dr. Ho Kai, That petition. presented to the House of Commons in 1891 prayed for presentative government in Hongkong, and Lord Ripon, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time, wrote a despatch in which, after discussing the d-mands for un. 6,090.85 | official representation on the Executive Council and increased representation on the Legislative 9,114.58 Council, concluded as follows:-
New Condeusers and Scrub.
berg..
New W. G. Plant
New Gasholder, No. 2
22,414,74 13,486.48 127,585.91
161,487.13
Furnture Account :-
Valuation on 31st
December, 196
5,959.33
Less Writton off
for Depreciation
159.89
Addition during the year......
5.500,00 396.87
Hongkow Ilouse
Property
Account
Stocks on Hand: ·
Fittings, Gas Engine and
Stoves
195,646.8
Coal, Tar, Purifying da
terials and Gas in Holders 39,554.37
235,291.00
Sundry Debtors:—
Amounts due for Gas, Fit-
Fire Insurance unexpired...
Co.-24 hours...
tings, Coke, Tar, and etc
Shanghai Mutual Telephono
Cash un Hand
Tls....
*8, 11.17 2.4447.78
1,421,54 21.51
...2,512,414.93
* Since collected...Tls. 79,736.68
THE GOVERNMENT AND THE SANITARY BOARD.
It is satisfactory to note that the Bill which the Government has brought forward to amend the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance is receiving the attention it deserves alike from the Chinese and the Europeans whose interests Bre concerned. By the time the Bill comes up for a second reading the Government should have the benefit of valuable expressions of public opinion in regard to the most debateable pro- visions of the Bill.
Eo far as the larger question of public control of the work of the Sanitary Board is concerned. nothing has yet been done which, by any stretch of the imagination, can be considered Can it be that alarming to the Government. the community has changed with the times? A dozen years ago the Government's refusal to accept the recommendations of the Saui- tary Commission in this regard would have elicited, in less than a week, a more striking manifestation of disapproval than bas yet been given. The suggestions which the Com- mission made were, a dozen years or 80 8g), distinctly encouraged as an ideal by the Colonial Office. Can the Government be blamed, then, if it assumes in the absence of any popular agitation on the subject, that the old aspirations of the community are dead and buried, and that the alternative proposals put forward by the Government in place of those advanced by the the Commission have the silent support of community?
It may be objected that it is hasty to draw such a conclusion yet. The Chamber of Com- merce is convening a meeting for the elec. tion of a member of the Legislative Council to occupy the seat temporarily vacated by the Hon. Mr. E. A. Hewett, and this will doubtless offer the occasion for an expression of public
When the Chamber of opinion on the subject. Commerce last expressed an opinion on a ques- the plebiscite was tion of this character
of
effec- favour overwhelmingly in
Whether tive public control.
the leading are preparing to discuss the Chinese who Bill will venture to ventilate their views the subject of quasi-municipal government remains to be seen, and when it is Been it may have
an important bearing on the discussion of the matter in the Legislative Counoil.
mora
OD
It is well that the community should ence more have the pros and cons of the question put before them.
8.3
Mr. Shelton Hooper, as a member of the Commission, wrote an appendix to the Report a valuable historical review of the demand for a more effective control of the affairs of the Colony, but he omitted to include in it the Colonial Office approval to which
41
ro.
With regard to the institution of a Muni. cipal Council, I frankly say that I should like to see one established at Hongkong. But there appear to be two practical difficulties in the way. The first is the present crisis. I am not prepared to sanction Au important change of administration, until the future is tolerably clear and until the necessary meas. ures for protecting the health of the Colony have been finally decided upon and brought into operation. Then, in a clear fi ld, it may be possible to creste a municipal body with some prospect of success,
"The second difficulty, to which allusion has already been made, is that of separating I am not Municipal from Colonial matters. confident that that difficulty can be overcome, nor am I coufident that a municipality would be welcome to, and work harmoniously with, the military authorities. Still it is possible that the Sanitary Board might be developed into a satisfactory Municipal Council control ling all or some of the revenue which is now derived from rates. Whether any scheme of the kind is feasible I would ask you carefully to consider at your leisure, and in the meau. time you are at liberty, if you see occasion to do so, to give publicity to this despatch." Presumably the Governor (then Sir William Robinson) did carefully consider the matter. His Excellency but the despatch in which communicated his views to Downing Street There ar indications not published. in subsequent despatches from the Culonial Office that those views were definitely adverse to any scheme of the kind, for the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, who succeeded Lord Ripon in the Colonial Office, remarking two years later ou the absence of a Municipal Coun. in Hoogkong, observed: "It Beems cil
stats of things impracticable to alter this for this reason among others: that the Colony and Municipality would be in great measure co-extensive, and it would be almost mpossible to draw the line between Colonial and Municipal matters." Therefore, in Mr. Chamberlain's opinion, the most practical Colonial was to recognise that the Government was discharging Municipal duties and that on that account representatives of the citizens might fairly be given a place on the Executive.
W88
Ouurse
It has to be said however, for the recommenda tion of the Sanitary Commission that no carefully prepared schema was ever before submitted to the Government showing in Lord Ripon's words how the Sanitary Board tight by developed into a satisfactory Municipal Council controlling
. some of the revenus which is now derived from rates." That scheme is fairly entitled to consideration on
merits. its
Since its publication it bas been favourably commentet apoo, erally regarded as a good scheme; but it that more profitably debated now His Excellency has publicly stated the reasons for its rejection.
can
be
aud
gen.
The public have been told that the Governor has simply swallowed the advice of the Colonial Secretary and the Director of Pablic Works, and the excase has kindly been made for him i that his residence in the Colony has been brief and he could not therefore be expected to have And as a perfect grasp of the situation. the Governor's office work does not
obtain the same publicity as his social engagements there may be some who have adopted this as readily as the Governor is assumed to hare adopted the views of his advisors.
|
[March 16, 1908.
Gal-
to
especially Sir Frederick Lugard, who not be aconsed of any want of sympathy with the public aspirations-would venture to pronounce judgment on an important question of this character, forced upon his personal atten tion in the way this has been, without giving the fullest and most impartial cousideration
It is common the arguments on both sides ? knowledge that the consideration both of the evidenos given before the Commission and the Report based upon it
have occupied & very large portion of His Exo-ilauoy's Lima since his arrival ju the Colony, and the has y, not to say impudeut, suggestion that His Excellency has no mind of his own on the question may at once by dismissed
It has to be recognised that there are arguments-and weighty arguments-against the establishment of even a quasi-Municipality in the Colony, and though the preponderating voice of the Community has in times past been in favour of i', the opposition has not emanated Mr. J. J. Koswick entirely from the officials. and Mr. E, R. Belílios, while members of the Legislative Council, wrote strongly against the idea. But many years have since passed and ample excuse exists for a reconsideration of the Io a further article we shall consider matter. the scheme of the Commission and the Govern ment's alternative proposils,
IL
The first question which suggests itself when we appro ich the consideration of the municipal What are scheme of the Commission is this: the conditions which have prompted the reoom- mendation? This takes us at occe to the root of matters. When wo take the statements made by the Commissioners on this point and contrast them with declarations made by His Excellency the Governor we discover that a serious mis. the cue side understanding exists either on or the other on an all-important point. That point is the status of the present Sanitary Is the Board, as the Commissioners affirm, something even less than a Consulting Committee, or is the Board the master, not the servant, of the administrative head of the department? The President of the Sanitary Board claims (vide para. 314 of the Report) :
Board.
that he is the sole head of the Department within the terms of Ordinance 23 of 1903, and that it is only in certain comparatively small matters, or as a matter of courtesy, that he consults the Board as to the working of the Department, or even keeps them informed as to what is taking place in the Department. All matters relating to finance, the control, appointments, promotions, &c, of the staff, conduct of business between the Board Meetings, and the ordering of the daily work of the Department being outside the juris- diction of the Sanitary Board.
Н
The Commissioners do not dispute the corr.otness of the attitude taken up by the These views, Principal Civil Medical Offiser. however, were not countenanced by His Ex- o-llency the Governor in his speech to the Council. His Excellency, it is true, did not take hold of this particular paragraph of the Report, and directly declare that the President and the Commissioners had taken a totally wrong view of the matter; but when His Excellency is d-aling in bis address with the question whether the Medical Officer of Health should have a seat on the Board, we find him saying: -" It has been urged that he is servant of the Board, reaponsible for carrying out the decisions of the Board, but the President
less a
servant of the Board to carry Coutrast this declaration out its decisions. with the statement in the Report of the Commission, which affirms that the existing Ordinance, as amended by section 23 of 19 3, has placed the whole control of the administra- tion of the Sanitary Department in the hands of the Principal Civil Medical Officer ( admin- istrative head of the Board), reducing the Sanitary Board to something even less than a Consulting Committee," an I place against this statement also this further observation by the Governor : "The Saitary Board w-igh expert opinion against questions of fasace and policy and the majority decide the issue.”
13
по
*
If that correctly represents the position, s great deal of ground dissppears from auder the fabrio er-oted by the Commission, and
His But these
from
Excellency's extracts speech might usefully be done in illuminated
is it conceivable that any Governor-and
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.