staircases instead of four and two crosspieces instead of one. The largest building constructed during the period under review is situated at Li Cheng Uk near the north end of Tonkin Street, Shamshuipo. It is a seven-storey building and contains eight hundred and forty rooms. Once the piling had been completed this building was finished in about eight weeks. This was the most striking example of the way in which Hong Kong's out- standingly efficient building industry enabled the work of resettlement to move ahead quickly; but the building of the Tai Hang Tung Estate was also extremely rapid. The site of this estate was covered with squatter structures until 22nd July, 1954 when they were all destroyed by fire. Plans for the permanent development of this area with eight seven-storey blocks were being prepared even before the clearance of debris had been completed. A piling contract was let on 29th Sep- tember, 1954 and on 31st October, 1954, before all the piling had been done, a building contract was let. The construction of the eight seven-storey blocks, comprising 4,606 rooms, was completed on 6th March, 1955.
43. By the end of the financial year seventeen permanent buildings of six or seven storeys, containing in all 8,518 rooms had been completed and plans for the construction of an addi- tional twenty five seven-storey buildings, containing 12,698 rooms, were well advanced.
44. The illustrations at the end of the report show the design of the buildings, the method of conversion into self- contained flats and the location of the estates built and planned during the year under review.
CHAPTER VIII
THE ECONOMICS OF MULTI-STOREY RESETTLEMENT
45. It had from the start been argued that whilst a great deal of money would undoubtedly have to be spent on the clear- ance and resettlement of squatters, there was no reason why
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