Chairman of the Merting of Landowners, Shanghai, 10th July, 1901.
Sir,—In reply to your letter of 2nd inst. I beg to inform you that, in compliance with your suggestion, three landowners—Me. Morrison, Mr. Lester and: myself—have been deputed as representatives to hold a meeting with the Works Committee of the Council, to discuss the Chinese Building Rules.
W. E. Leveso:
Acting Secretary.
Teswen Hace. Bsq., Chairman of the Meeting of Landowners, Roto VIL—The surface of the ground on all sites on which it is propo-ed to erect a building shall be raised at least three inches above the finished level of the back of the footpath, or where there is no existing footpath to three inches above the crown of the nearest road, The ground floor level of every building shall lie at least twelve inches above the finished level of the back of the footpath or the crown of the road as the case may be.
The yround surface of every building shall be covered with good lime or cement concrete at least six inches thick and finished off smooth.
RULE IX.—Cook-houses, urinals. latrines anid open surfaces connected therewith, such as back yards, court yards or other places on which foul water may be deposited, and all passages of a width of five feet or under, shall he paved with good cement conerete stone or other impervious material so as to present a smooth impermeable surface with an adequate fall towards "trapped gulls, Passages shall have the following minimum widths:
Passages having houses fronting both sides: 10 feet.
Passages having houses fronting one side and having hongs or backs or sities of houses or walls or fences on the other side: 7} feet.
Passages having hongs on one or both sides and giving access to the front thereof: 74 feet.
Passages. giving access to the hack of houses only: 3 fect.
The above rule shall not apply to entrance gateways.
Where widths have to be measured from wooden fromed houses, the measurements shall be taken from the fronts of the main .—Every tea-house, theatre, or house of entertainment and every building to Ue used for industrial purposes or shop employing ten or more persons shall be provided with sufficient Iatrine and urinal accommodation for the use of persons Shanghai, 30th August, 1901, Sm,—Mr. Hogg, before his departure, intimate to us that as regards detail he was willing that the matter should rest in our hands, and we therefore have the honour to reply to your letter of the 28th August, addressed te him ay follows Roto VUL—A clause has been added to this rule requiring that the ground surface of every building shall be covered with concrete, We object very strongly to fresh requirements being introduced at such a late date, but as we are of opinion that conerete will improve the'sanitary condition of the houses we accept this addition to the rule, It will, however, be necessary to add the words, "the upper surface of the concrete may be at the level specified in the first clause for the surface of the ground." This is required to meet the ease of shops which have the floor 12 inches above the footpath a provided for at the end of Rule XVIIL Rees IX and X.—We accept as re-drafted,
that all surface drains should be properly Rei—This rule apparently equities eoustracted and indicates that pipes shoul not discharge directly over gullies. If we understand the rule aright we agree to it, XVILL—To the redrafting of this ly object. We have all along held the opinion that if the main rule be drafted with reference to each house either the rule will be unworkable, or with a view to making it fit for wil cases the amount of ventilation will be cut down far below the proper standard We think the last named fault was committed in the original rule.
To meet the difficulty we proposed a large area of open space per house, but we distinctly object to having our concession embodied in the rule while the portion which we refused to accept is re-inserted. We must adhere to the rule as trofted by us, but will accept a modification to the extent of giving 120 sq. feet instead of 100, and we will allow the following words to be added ta the end of the first clause '*so that each house may have arleqtate ventilation." We have no desire to build insanitary houses, but we desire the special cases which may amount to 1 or 2% of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.