LAND AND HOUSING
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development or for road widening, and 4,813 occupants were resettled. Approximately 6.8 acres of land were freed in this way. However, in the remoter cottage areas existing wooden structures are sometimes replaced. In the Chai Wan cottage resettlement area, for instance, the Methodist Church completed the last batch of 72 cottages in Epworth Village to replace old and dilapidated wooden huts. Several of the remaining cottage areas still contain many small factories, shops and workshops; besides schools, clinics and welfare centres of various types, which are largely provided by voluntary agencies who continue to add generously to such facilities year by year.
Rennie's Mill Village. In 1950 a new community came into existence in Junk Bay on the eastern shores of the Kowloon peninsula when a number of ex-Nationalist soldiers, previously accommodated on Hong Kong Island, were moved to a camp under the supervision of the then Social Welfare Office. With the passage of time many of the original soldiers moved away. Other immigrants and their families took their place and the camp developed into a permanent settlement of some 8,000 inhabitants living in stone cottages, many of which were constructed with the assistance of welfare organizations. The Resettlement Department took over the administration of the village as an additional cottage area in 1961, and in July 1963 it was gazetted as a fully constituted cottage resettlement area, to take effect from 1st January 1964. Since 1961 many improvements have been made, including the provision of better drainage and sanitary facilities, the surfacing of the existing approach road from the Clear Water Bay Road, the improvement of public footpaths inside the area, and the installation of a main water supply. A police station, a temporary fire station and resettlement office and staff quarters have also been completed.
Squatter Clearances. During the year, 85,057 persons were cleared from land required for development. All genuine occupants were resettled mostly in the new multi-storey blocks completed and handed over by the Public Works Department in 1963. The intake for the year under review brought the total population in the multi-storey estates to 530,319. In the 1963 clearances, 861.85 acres of land were freed. Owing to the scarcity of land within the urban area, it is becoming increasingly necessary to clear areas