CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
ACCORDING to the Colony Census which was taken on 7th March, 1961, the total Colony population was about 3,128,000. Of this number 2,579,832 lived in the Urban Areas of Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Kowloon.
2. Detailed statistics and analysis will take some time to prepare, but schedules are now available of crude numbers in the census districts, relating to types of accommodation, number of households, length of occupation of accommodation, and tenure. No information will be available regarding income groups or rents paid, but useful information will be provided in due course on age groups, sizes of households, personal characteristics, industry, employment status, occupation, education and schooling.
3. These analyses will be most useful for general planning purposes, but although of great interest will only be of limited use to the Housing Authority, whose scope in the general provision of housing accom- modation is limited not only by the range of incomes for which it is able to cater, but more so by the funds which it is likely to have available.
4. With the $156 millions by way of a revolving fund which Govern- ment has so far made available, the Authority will be able to house approximately 105,000 people by 1964, but owing to Government's inability to increase the fund, the expenditure on the Authority's programme thereafter will be limited to the surplus income which can be made available by the Authority from its shop tenancies, plus the small amount of money derived from the element of capital repayment in rental income. This surplus is unlikely to be sufficient to provide housing for more than about 4,000 people per annum at present.
5. After nearly seven years of expenditure and much effort, debate and considerable achievement, the future prospect viewed from this standpoint is by no means encouraging.
6. The year covered by this report has been one of unceasing activity, and some considerable achievement in the building and letting
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