poses generally and for complete immersion of bed boards and the smaller articles of furniture. Altogether, it takes about three to four months to cleanse the whole of the urban district.
con-
Continued political instability in China has caused a slow but steady influx of refugees from the hinterland. As a result despite the excellent progress achieved in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of war-damaged property, the housing shortage remains acute. Squatters' colonies comprising crudely structed huts and shacks without sanitation of any kind, have arisen on the more accessible and conveniently situated
situated open itself. In order to spaces, even in the heart of the city eliminate conditions which seriously menace the health of the Colony, measures have been adopted which provide not only for demolition of these dangerously insanitary squatters hovels but also for re-settlement of the displaced squatter on a prepared site where he may build for himself and his family, at low cost, a hut of standard design.
Rural Housing.
The housing of the village population in the New Territories is somewhat different, though in some of the market towns and suburban areas there is housing of a type similar to that found in the urban area. In these market towns, which are supplied with water and electricity and adjacent to roads, there have been con- siderable increases in population, particularly noticeable on Cheung Chau Island and in the town of Yuen Long on the north-western plain.
In the rural villages, where the population has remained stable, or even dwindled in numbers during the past twenty years, the original houses still stand. The population varies from 20 to 30 people for a small village to 2,000 in the case of the biggest village. The houses are huddled together and a few old villages are still surrounded by wall and moat, a reminder of more unsettled times. Some of the walled villages still retain their heavy gates, though the routine of bolting the gates against bandits at sunset has lapsed with time.
Village houses, which have passed from father to son through the years, are rarely sublet by the owner, who pays generally about 50 cents a year Crown rent. These houses are constructed of locally made blue brick or roughly cut granite blocks with a tiled roof and, of recent years, cement floors. The less permanent houses in the poorer villages are built of sun-dried mud-brick faced with plaster; these houses deteriorate after a few years, the owner again rebuilding in similar style. A typical village dwelling consists of one ground floor room, entrance being made through the front
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