Sewage
Removal of excremental wastes from the majority of buildings is carried out by the pan-conservancy system and many hundreds of workers are employed for this purpose. The pilot scheme mentioned in last year's Report whereby specially-designed sterilized pails with water-tight lids were to be used for shifting sewage was introduced during the year; it proved to be an improvement on the method previously used and is to be extended to other areas. Specially constructed barges are used to transport sewage from the urban areas to be dumped at sea a few miles west of Hong Kong Island. With the increase in the incidence of typhoid fever during the summer the precautionary measure was taken of stopping the organized distribution of raw nightsoil to New Territories farmers.
HOUSING
Due to the increase in population and the consequent serious overcrowding in the Colony, the provision of housing has been one of the most serious problems facing the Government during the year. The slight decrease in population during the second part of the year made little difference to the housing situation, although it was reflected in a slight lowering of rents in urban areas and less demands for key money.
At the end of the year several housing projects were receiving assistance and encouragement from the Government. These included a project to build 400 flats for small families at North Point financed by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation for the Hong Kong Model Housing Society, the directors of which include repre- sentatives of the Government and of leading charitable organizations. This will cost $3,500,000, exclusive of the site which is to be provided by the Government, and at the end of the year plans were well advanced. A two million dollar pilot scheme for the construction of small flats is likely to be implemented through the Hong Kong Housing Society which has made a request, through the Government, for assistance from Colonial Development and Welfare funds; this project also envisages the establishment of an Improvement Trust to supervise the extension of housing in the Colony. Other small privately-financed schemes are assisted by the Government by being allowed Crown leases on special low terms.
Over the last five years there has been a rapid increase in the numbers of blocks of modern apartments, some of them buildings of 7 storeys and over, ranging from apartments comparable in luxury with any in Britain and America to small family flats compact in size and with every modern convenience. Even on the Peak several large blocks have been constructed, some by commercial firms which have in some cases combined their resources to provide accommoda- tion for their employees, and some by the Government for housing civil servants and their families.
Where high-standard accommodation in houses and apartments is concerned there is little or no difference between accommodation used by Europeans and Chinese. In the rural parts of Hong Kong Island, on Victoria Peak and in the mainland suburban area of Kowloon Tong there are large numbers of houses and bungalows of first-rate construction.
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