CHAPTER VII
ADMINISTRATION AND WELFARE IN THE ESTATES AND AREAS
85. The multi-storey estates are administered by a staff of Area Officers whose main task is to train large numbers of former squatters to become good tenants of Government and good citizens of Hong Kong. Each Area Officer is responsible for about 1,000 families and his work consists of much more than the normal management work of an ordinary housing estate.
86. The qualities required in an Area Officer are imagina- tion, tact, patience, firmness and perseverance. He must, for example, be able to understand the mental adjustments which a former squatter must make when he is moved in one day from the type of squatter area described in Chapter II to a floor of a seven-storey building. A plan of a typical floor in such a building is at Appendix II (Drawing No. 2) and it will be noted that it consists of two wings joined by a link containing the latrines and the open spaces for washing. The total floor area measures about 11,300 sq. ft. and on this floor space there are 62 domestic rooms which will be occupied by about 90 families, the total number of persons including children being about 340. These 340 persons must share six latrines and two stand-pipes, the water in which may not be on for more than 24 hours a day because of the Colony's water restrictions. It is clear that if the access balconies, the latrines, the washing spaces and the staircases are to be kept clean the new settlers must quickly learn to discard all slovenly and insanitary habits.
87. Simple rules of hygiene are then the first lessons the Area Officer must endeavour to teach. But there is much more that the new settler must learn: why, for example, it is important to pay his rent on the due date; why he must not engage in any occupation in his room which would cause a nuisance to his neighbours; or which is contrary to the laws of the Colony; and the fact that the law requires a licence to be obtained for certain trades.
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