As a first step in the drawing up of this plan, Sir Patrick Abercrombie was invited to make a survey of the needs of Hong Kong in the matter of town planning and to prepare an outline plan for the development of the urban
area.
This survey, complete with maps of the recommended developments, was published in September, 1949, and envisages far-reaching alterations in the construction and lay-out of the urban area of Victoria and Kowloon. Detailed projects, based on such portions of the Survey as are capable of immediate implementation in the light of the present economic position of the Colony, are now being prepared.
Preparation and implementation of plans for the rural areas are more advanced since in these areas the planners are not confronted with the same problems of what to do with existing structures, such as confront the replanners of the urban areas. It has been accepted in principle that £500,000, or half the sum allocated to Hong Kong, should be devoted to projects for the development of the fishing and agricultural areas and the New Territories, on the economy of which the Japanese occupation had a disastrous effect. By means of these projects it is sought to amplify beyond the means of the Colony's present finances the plans of the Fisheries and Vegetable Wholesale Marketing Schemes for the development of the natural resources of the New Territories. Under one scheme approximately 46,000 square feet of land has been reclaimed on the western side of Aberdeen harbour; the approved total for this scheme is £10,000. At Kennedy Town Market the construction of four landing piers costing £6,848 was completed in November in order to facilitate the landing of fish brought for sale in the Fisheries Wholesale Market. Under a further scheme, whereby £9,375 were granted and a similar amount lent under the Fund, sixteen diesel lorries were purchased for the Vegetable Marketing organisation and are now in full use.
Several other schemes are in various stages of prepara- tion and implementation. A grant of £18,375 and a loan of £9,375 will be made available for the establishment of village depots in the New Territories under the supervision of the Vegetable Marketing Organisation. Plans are in hand for de-centralizing the Organisation and breaking it up into small operating groups of producers who in turn will form the basis for the establishment of Co-operatives. Sixty such small groups, known as Village Depots, will be erected during the next two years, each depot costing about $3,000. The depots, which will be
be operated by the farmers, will operate as village units to which farmers will bring their produce for weighing and will receive their supplies of baskets and fertilizer.
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