LAND AND HOUSING
125
with 463,000 in April 1965. Some 12,776 people were admitted to licensed areas during the year, and at the end of December the population of these areas stood at 32,645.
Liaison Officers of the Resettlement Department maintain close contact with squatters and, where necessary, arrange for minor public works.
The New Territories Administration is responsible for the control of squatters in the New Territories, with the exception of Tsuen Wan district where control has been transferred to the Resettlement Department. The more accessible parts of the New Territories are regularly patrolled and are divided into prohibited and non-prohibited areas. In prohibited areas, such as the margins of roads, development areas, and land exposed to flooding, no new domestic huts are allowed. In non-prohibited areas temporary structures may be built with permission from the District Office.
The categories of persons eligible for resettlement were laid down in order of priority in the 1964 White Paper 'Review of Policies for Squatter Control, Resettlement and Government Low- Cost Housing' and subsequently revised on the recommendation of the Housing Board. These categories and the number of people resettled under each head during the year are:
Priority 1: Compassionate cases, including certain victims of natural disasters and persons recommended by the Director of Social Welfare 9,721.
Priority 2: Rent Advance Scheme for families displaced from
dangerous buildings 3,740.
Priority 3: Development clearances 23,646.
Priority 4: Relief from overcrowding 22,406.
Priority 5: Pavement dwellers, including rear lane dwellers
946.
During the year revised rates of ex-gratia allowance were approved for pigbreeders on clearance and new rates were introduced for poultry farmers on clearance. A new proposal to pay a cash allow- ance to squatter shopkeepers on clearance in lieu of the allocation of a resettlement shop was approved during the year.