RECREATION
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In the New Territories, this responsibility rests with the Director of Urban Services working closely with the District Commissioner, New Territories Adminis- tration. During the year, an additional 9.56 acres of public open space were provided throughout the New Territories. These included two playgrounds of 1.05 acres at Kwai Fong Estate, 13 playgrounds of 5.09 acres at Kwai Shing Estate, two more of 1.10 acres at Lei Muk Shue Estate, with several more rest gardens in New Territories'
towns.
In June 1972, the government announced approval, in principle, of a $33 million plan to develop other recreational facilities. Main features of the plan are develop- ment of four major parks in the New Territories and provision of picnic areas and hiking facilities on Hong Kong Island. The parks in the New Territories will each be about two square miles. It is envisaged that they will have barbecue pits, shelters, seats, benches, tables, pavilions, surfaced tracks for service vehicles, and surfaced and unsurfaced foot-tracks for visitors. They will be provided with toilet facilities, refuse bins and water supplies. More picnic spots, barbecue pits, toilets and other facilities will be provided in the 40 square miles of recreational areas surrounding the parks. On Hong Kong Island, the proposed picnic areas will be at Quarry Bay, Tai Tam, Shek O, Brick Hill, Pok Fu Lam, Mount Davis and Wong Nei Chung. The Director of Agriculture and Fisheries will be responsible for management of these country parks and recreational areas.
In support of the general aims of the Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign and the Fight Violent Crime Campaign, 'black spots' and 'crime sites' totalling an area of 22 acres were cleared and developed for use as temporary playgrounds and gardens or sitting-out areas.
The Urban Council and Urban Services Department now manage a total of 1,567 acres of public open space (1,004 in the urban areas and 563 in the New Terri- tories). During the year, 259,385 trees, shrubs and seasonal flowers were planted in these parks, playgrounds, along roadsides and in other public places. Among these, were 10,000 semi-mature trees for the urban areas, for which $2 million was specially provided by the Urban Council from its own vote. Percentage of survival was high, mainly because the unusually wet weather was favourable for planting.
In addition to its own planting programme, the Urban Council also encourages horticulture in Hong Kong by its annual flower show each spring. This year it at- tracted nearly 79,000 people.
As usual, swimming was the most popular outdoor summer activity. It is estimated that, on each Sunday and public holiday during the summer months, about 300,000 people used the 38 gazetted beaches and six public swimming pools under the management of the Urban Council and Urban Services Department.
During the peak swimming season, July and August, daily attendance at the six Urban Council pools regularly reached 70,000 when the weather was fine. However, because of the unusually wet weather during those months-wettest summer since 1889-the average attendance was much lower than last year. Swimming lessons were given at these pools for 1,850 members of the public during the summer