RECEIVED IN
RESTRY NO. 51
23 JUN 1977
香港總督府
HKK030/4
CONFIDENTIAL
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
Minor
KONG
WhatONG Diy 17th June 1977
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PETITION BY HEUNG YEE KUK DELEGATION
11
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As requested in your letter of 28 April, I attach a suggested reply to the documents presented by the Heung Yee Kuk including the Joint Opinion" prepared for the Kuk by Counsel. (A note by our legal Department on the Opinion is also annexed to this letter).
2.
I am sorry that it is late. Most of the Kuk's submission is easy to answer, but we have been pondering the whole pattern of administration in the rapidly changing circumstances of the New Territories.
3.
As you may know we set up a pilot adminis- tration last year in Tsuen Wan headed by a Town Manager with an official management committee, and associated with it an unofficial body charged with advising on the development of amenities. This body was nominated both from new inhabitants who had proved themselves in such organizations as Mutual Aid Committees, as well as the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the old rural committees of the villages now submerged in the new urban complex. It is on such rural committees that the Kuk is based. I recently met this Amenities Committee and it is a lively and constructive body which could evolve into something with more power, and play a useful and satisfying part in guiding officials to develop the town in accordance with the wishes of its inhabitants. However such a body cuts across the desire of the Kuk to operate as a sort of New Territories Urban Council, which they referred to in their submission.
4.
I am now convinced that such a concept is completely wrong. Not only would it entrench the interest of the old land-owners at the expense of the much more numerous new inhabitants, but it would prevent the encouragement of civic sense in the new towns through the association of local unofficials with the town management.
5.
For historical and practical reasons there is advantage for the foreseeable future in maintaining a
J.A.B. Stewart Esq.,
OBE