the number was not greater was due to three main reasons. In the first place the number of squatters on the island was in 1955 only about one third as large as the number in northern Kowloon. Secondly, most of the squatters on the island were occupying tracts of steep hillside which were not, in general, required for development as urgently as the flatter land occupied by squatters in Kowloon. Finally, owing to the mountainous nature of the island, and the very full use already made of all the flatter land, it had not proved possible to find any suitable sites which could be developed as resettlement estates without very heavy expenditure on site formation.
51. When, therefore, the department was asked to clear the Housing Authority's site for 640 low-cost flats at Cadogan Street, Kennedy Town, it was decided to resettle the 950 squatters in Li Cheng Uk Estate in Kowloon. Most of the families were extremely poor, earning what they could by casual labour or hawking. After one month's intensive preparatory work by a small team of skilled officers 90 per cent accepted the challenge of a new life in Kowloon. On 5th April 1956, after demolishing all their huts voluntarily at daybreak, with all their belongings labelled, equipped with picnic lunches, and in good humour, they crossed the harbour from a pier at Kennedy Town in hired ferries. By mid-afternoon they had all paid their first month's rent in Li Cheng Uk. The success of this operation indicated that there would probably be no great difficulty in clearing squatters on a large scale from Hong Kong Island and resettling them in Kowloon.
52. The second operation on Hong Kong Island took place at Healthy Village, near North Point, between November 1955 and April 1956. Here, 427 persons living in 41 huts, mostly built of wood, were moved from the site of the Hong Kong Housing Society's new low-cost housing scheme. This would soon provide accommodation for about 3,700 persons in ten and twelve storey blocks of self-contained flats. In so far as this operation freed land for permanent development it resembled those already described in this Chapter. In one respect how- ever it was unique, for Healthy Village had been established as a temporary resettlement area by the Medical Department early
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