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LAND AND HOUSING
vary from 38 cents for a ground floor unit to 23 cents for one on the top floor in the older factories, and from 55 cents on the ground floor to 25 cents on the top floor in the new factories. All rents are inclusive of rates. In administering these factory tenancies, the Resettlement Department checks machinery and electrical and floor loading and, to secure satisfactory working conditions and safety from fire and other hazards, there is continuous liaison with the Labour and Fire Services Departments. The programme of installing additional electrical rising mains and individual circuit- breakers to factories continued during the year in order to catch up with increasing demands for electrical power.
There still remain 14 of the old cottage resettlement areas in various parts of the urban area and New Territories, but the number of occupants tends to dwindle as clearance for development goes on and they are resettled in multi-storey accommodation. However, cottage areas still house 73,618 people. Several of the remaining cottage areas contain many small factories, shops and workshops, together with schools, clinics and welfare centres of various types, which are largely provided by voluntary agencies who generously continue to maintain these facilities.
SQUATTER CONTROL AND CLEARANCE
During the year 43,897 people were cleared and resettled and 40.17 acres of land were thus freed for development. These operations also entailed the clearance of 514 shops and workshops, of which 343 were resettled and 171 were found to be ineligible for resettle- ment due to their limited size or, in the case of shops, because the premises were not in operation during a special shop survey carried out in 1965. In addition, 500 factories had to be cleared. Of these, 330 were resettled into multi-storey factory blocks, while 108 were not eligible for resettlement and 53 rejected resettlement. A further nine factories will be resettled in these blocks provided they change their trade to one suitable for operation in resettlement factories.
Cultivators who opened up Crown land for cultivation without legal tenure before October 1954 are given ex-gratia cash compensa- tion when this land is cleared for development. During the year $776,532 was paid to cultivators against the clearance of 21.8 acres of cultivation. Large-scale pig breeders on Crown land are