8
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
technically a tunnel was practicable and that the cost would be in the region of $160,000,000. The Government, therefore, set up a small inter-departmental working party to investigate the financial and economic aspects of the scheme; by the end of the year no further official statement had been made. The controversy on the relative merits of a tunnel and a bridge occupied considerable newspaper space, and private interests published preliminary details of a bridge scheme. It may be expected that in 1956 there will be further development on this subject.
HOUSING
With its estimated population of 2,400,000, rapidly increasing, and with a high birth-rate, Hong Kong has a housing problem about as difficult as that of any country in the world. Despite the most vigorous action on the part of the Government, it looks like remaining one of the Colony's chief internal problems for many years to come.
In 1955 the most obvious and spectacular progress was made in continuing the programme of resettling squatters in multi-storey buildings, in which another 30,000 people were housed. The total population of the resettlement areas increased by 42,000, bringing the present population of the areas to 153,000. The resettlement programme has been on an accelerated basis since early 1954, at which time there were more than 40,000 people homeless as a result of a series of disastrous fires in squatter areas. The decision was then taken to break away from earlier ideas, which had envisaged resettlement in terms of cottage development, and go in for multi-storey buildings. At the same time a special Department of Government was created to deal solely with resettlement problems.
Due to stringent fire precautions, and to the fact that many of the largest squatter areas have already been cleared and the inhabitants resettled, there is no longer much danger of disastrous fires of the size experienced in the past. But fire in squatter zones still remains a problem of the first magnitude. It is calculated that some 300,000 squatters still remain. For 65,000 of these accommodation is already under construction or planned; but fires still occur during the dry season, affecting up to 2,000 people at a time.
Apart from direct Government action in creating better housing conditions, various independent bodies, assisted