HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, may I say that I appreciate very much the frankness the Director of Public Works shows to this Council when answering our questions and supplementaries. This attitude makes for a better understanding of the situation. Now I have just one supple- mentary to put to him. The figures which he has cited, do they include Government Low-cost housing units as well as resettlement blocks?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:-No, Sir, they do not cover Government Low-cost housing units. As regards Government Low- cost Housing, we are well ahead of any programme which Government has set. I think in the White Paper the aim is to produce 170,000 over six years.
In fact we are producing 180,000 and we are producing many more than the average rate over the next few years.
MR. SALES: That is what I have been trying to establish and I would like to congratulate the Public Works Department on its achieve- ment notwithstanding the failure of the building contractors. I can only hope that they will meet with equal success in building swimming pools. (Laughter).
MR. BERNACCHI:-Perhaps the Commissioner for Resettlement would clarify the missing 26,000 in the Statement of Progress, paragraph 214 "Combined authorized population of urban estates and cottage areas at the end of March was 1,156,102". In the answer to the question the Commissioner states "If the 45,906 persons who were rehoused in pre 1953 'resettlement areas' were also to be included the total would have been 1,124,018", so there is a difference of about 26,000.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I am afraid I am not able to answer that. I shall give you an answer later.
MR. SALES: -Perhaps the 26,000 were housed in March, Mr. Chairman, for which the figures were not provided in the Commis- sioner's answer but perhaps were given in the Statement of Progress?
MR. RAYMOND Y. K. KAN:-Mr. Chairman, I am wondering whether this figure of over 1.1 million persons include those in the Licensed area and, if not, very roughly how many persons are in the Licensed area?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I have to answer that in a separate answer to a separate question. It would be too much research for me to do it now.
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MRS. E. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, in the Commissioner for Resettlement's answer he said that "if the 45,906 persons were rehoused in the pre 1953 . . . does he mean cottage areas, because are they not the people who have been housed again after the cottages were demolished so they shouldn't count?