14
REVIEW
The Hong Kong Government also decided in principle in 1969 to establish a polytechnic. This will be built up from the Technical College (which was established in 1947) and will provide both in- dustrial and commercial courses at levels ranging upwards from technician to fully professional qualifications. A director has been appointed and it is expected that by 1974 the Polytechnic will have a student body of 4,000, with some 20,000 part-time students.
Along with the increases in industrial wages, there have been progressive and undisruptive changes in industrial legislation, to modernise statutory conditions governing the employment of labour. The full long-term programme of legislation envisaged by Mr David Trench, as he then was when Commissioner of Labour in the late 1950's, has still to be completed, and more items have joined the queue since then. But the main changes already made are significant and include the provision of compulsory holidays, restrictions on the hours of employment of women and young people and increases in the range of benefits payable under the Workmen's Compensation Ordinance.
There has also been a great change in social welfare administra- tion, to provide more adequately for those members of the com- munity who have been unable to share in the general increase in prosperity. The whole system of welfare assistance has been over- hauled and modernised. It now provides for the payment of cash, rather than the issue of rations, and it treats those who are in need more generously. This reflects the great changes that have taken place in social welfare policy generally. In post-war years the official emphasis had been on the provision of basic services only, on provid- ing selective subventive support to case work and institutions through voluntary agencies, and on restricting direct relief work to those affected by fires or floods or other disasters. More recently it has been possible to turn towards more effective planning of the welfare resources of Hong Kong with the aid of research and other studies. Much of this is done conjointly with the voluntary sector's own skills and co-ordination, so that the needs of the community can be identified and dealt with specifically. The tasks are challenging and the problems of the aged and the mentally inadequate in an urban society will particularly call for attention in future.
The Community Chest was established in 1968 as an unofficial joint fund-raising body to bring a professional and convenient approach to finding recurrent revenue for member welfare charities. It has since raised and distributed over $23 million in voluntary