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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 1st March 1972.
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[THE COLONIAL SECRETARY] White Paper on the Urban Council- resumption of debate on motion (9.2.72)
appointed members of the Urban Council, before speaking in this Chamber.
I am also grateful for the very careful consideration which has been given to the proposals by the present members of the Urban Council.
The target date for putting into effect the proposals made is the 1st April next year, and before then a great deal of new legislation, a great deal of administrative settlement of points of detail, and a great deal of financial planning has to be done, and financial details settled. Nevertheless 1, Sir, and I know you yourself, regard the hitting of the target date as a must, and every necessary priority will be given to the work. The time for debate has now passed, and the time for action has now arrived.
If only for that reason, I am winding up this debate with a very short speech. I will only assure honourable Members that careful note has been made of all the points brought out in the debate, and all of them will be taken into account in framing the detailed proposals which will, of course, have to go before Finance Committee and come back eventually to this Council in the form of legislative proposals. Therefore I do not propose at this stage to delay matters, or to trespass on the time of my honourable Friend, the Financial Secretary, by going into detail. Though there was from outside this Council and the Urban Council very little public reaction to the proposals, and though on many of them a substantial concensus of divergence did not, I am glad to say, emerge, there was one particular point on which all interested parties. expressed the same view. The proposal that the Standing Orders of the Urban Council should be subject to the approval of this Council was the subject of criticism from all sides. That proposal will there- fore be dropped.
As I have said, the time for debate is now over. The Urban Council has in its present sphere and its future sphere, and in both these spheres, many urgent tasks with which they wish to get on and we, on our part, have the task of clothing the bare bones of the proposals in the White Paper with flesh.
I beg to move therefore, Sir, without further ado, that this Council welcomes the White Paper on the Urban Council which was tabled on the 13th October last year.
Question put and agreed to.
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