MARINE DEPARTMENT LIBRARY
themselves. The larger ones may be of two or even three storeys, accommodating perhaps fifty or sixty families who rent their small cubicles from a 'squatter landlord', usually an absentee, and may pay as much as $25 per month for as little as 50 sq. ft. The substantial houses, of which there are many in the area north of Kai Tak Airport, have been built on agricultural land either by the Crown lessees as a very profit- able investment, and rented to fairly well-to-do refugees who were unable to find normal accommodation when they arrived in the Colony in the years 1948-1950, or have been built by the refugees themselves who purchased the land from the former
owners.
31. The families living in these areas will likewise vary greatly in their economic and social status and will have come from many different parts of China. The Cantonese are usually in the majority but there will also be large numbers of Chiuchow speaking persons from the Swatow region and northerners from Shanghai or further north. At one extreme there will be a very small minority whose family incomes may exceed $1,000 per month, and who may be employed by the Government or by large firms, at the other there will be the families in wooden huts, many of whom have no regular employment and whose average earnings from casual labour or hawking are often less than $100 per month.
32. The first step in the process of clearing a squatter area is a quick preliminary survey which is made in order to determine the approximate number of inhabitants and particu- lars of shops, workshops, factories and cultivation. When these particulars have been obtained the amount of resettlement accommodation required can be calculated in order that a date for the clearance may be fixed.
33. About three months before the clearance date, teams from the Screening Section of the Department will make a thorough survey to obtain the necessary information about the genuine residents. This process may be likened to the taking of a census. Every structure is investigated and the particulars recorded on the screening form will include the number of persons living in the structure; their names, ages and relation- ships; identity card numbers; length of residence in the
11