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B5
the Governor and 12 elected) is a body corporate, deriving its authority
from the Urban Council Ordinance. Its main revenue is derived from its
share (34.8 per cent) of the yield from rates in the urban area; fees
and charges provide other sources of income. The Council is responsible
for managing its own finances and is the only body taking part in the
business of government in Hong Kong to consist solely of members of the
public. The Council's responsibilities are restricted to Hong Kong
Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon (which have a combined population of
nearly four million). Its main duties are public sanitation and
cleansing, the licensing and hygienic control of all food premises,
offensive trades and bathhouses; and the management and control of
civic centres, museums, football stadia, markets, abattoirs, hawkers,
cemeteries, crematoria and funeral parlours. While the Council has no direct
responsibility for education in the formal sense, its responsibility in
such areas as the provision and management of cultural services and of
public libraries and places of public recreation can be said to encompass
a wide range of services which both complement and enrich the educational
system.
6.
An important aim of the government is that of improving its
contacts with the population at large. The government is also concerned
to ensure that it acts on the best advice available and that its actions
are understood and accepted by those affected. A significant part of the
effort to achieve this aim is a comprehensive network of more than
360 advisory bodies. These bodies, which include both government
employees and members of the public, are a distinctive feature of the
system of government in Hong Kong. Practically all government departments