41
their outdoor recreational facilities convenient to their present indoor headquarters or clubs, and within a reasonable distance from their ships.
19. The Committee devoted special attention to the needs of the Navy in the matter of Recreation Grounds, as the inadequacy of the present position was strongly urged. It was pointed out that during the winter there are sometimes as many as 3,000 Naval ratings to be provided for. The Naval representative considered it to be essential that the grounds provided.should be given on a long enough tenure to justify improvement at the expense of Naval Funds, that they should be within easy access of the Harbour, and preferably on the Hong Kong side on which the Naval Clubs and Canteen are already situated.
20. These requirements do not admit of easy fulfilment and rule out the possibility of meeting the wishes of the Navy by the allocation of grounds at Aberdeen or on the Railway Reservation in Kowloon. The Caroline Hill site would meet Naval requirements but after a full discussion the Committee by a majority vote considered the area to be too valuable for a permanent reservation as a playing field and made the recommendation for its sale which is set out in paragraph 11 (a) of this report. The only recommenda- tion which the Committee felt able to make on behalf of the Navy is that recommended in paragraph 18.
THE MAINLAND.
PROVISION OF NEW AREAS TO MEET THE NEEDS OF CLUBS WHICH FIND THE EXISTING FACILITIES IN KOWLOON INADEQUATE AND TO ANTICIPATE THE REQUIREMENTS IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE OF THE RAPIDLY DEVELOPING
MONG KOK, SHAM SHUI PO AND KOWLOON CITY DISTRICTS.
21. We find that to the immediate north and east of the Police Training School on the east side of the Taipo Road and north of Prince Edward Road, and again on the west of the Taipo Road in the same vicinity, there are tracts of already levelled Crown land together with a large expanse of hilly undeveloped land, marked on the Town Development Plan as a Park, extending along the east of the railway to the base of the foot-hills on the north. To serve the growing needs of the Sham Shui Po and Mong Kok district we accordingly recommend that on the west of Taipo Road the land bounded by the future Cheung Sha Wan Road, Boundary Street, Wu Chau Street and Wong Chuk Street, and on the east of the Taipo Road the whole of the area behind the building frontages on Taipo and Prince Edward Roads to the immediate north and east of the Police Training School together with the area covered by the Park and the hilly area to the immediate north of the Park, as marked on the plan which forms Appendix II. to this report, should be permanently reserved by Government as recreation grounds. Much of this land is hilly and undeveloped and can only be regarded as reservation for the future development of a Park area for this district. Parts however are already levelled and parts are now being levelled. We recommend that such areas as are at present suitable be at once made available for allocation by the permanent Recreation Grounds Committee. We further recommend that th possibility of utilizing the less developed area as a municipal golf course be explored as soon as the present levelling operations are finished. In this connection we considered a proposal for the formation of a minia- ture golf course but came to the conclusion that is was not likely to meet with popular support.
22. We find that at the east end of Argyle Street and extending south to Ma Ton Chung Road there is another area of already levelled Crown land. We have selected a suitable portion of this land, about 20 acres in extent marked on the plan which forms Appendix III and, leaving the building frontage available on Argyle Street and Ma Tau Chung Road, we recommend that Government should permanently reserve this area to serve as a playing field area for the Kowloon City district.
23. We recommend also that a small area should be reserved for allotment as a playing field behind the building frontage of Argyle Street and opposite the Kowloon Hospital on the site originally proposed for a cemetery but now abandoned for this pur- pose. The location of this area is shown n Appendix IV.
Page 45Page 46