by only 6,119, of which the cottage areas accounted for 1,600 and Lo Fu Ngam estate 1,700.
20. However work was at the same time proceeding on the con- struction of a sixth estate, at Wong Tai Sin, which was to be the biggest so far planned. The site extends over twenty nine acres and, when fully completed, there will be twenty five blocks providing accommodation for 63,000 people. The site for the first block was cleared on 25th June, 1957 and this block was completed and ready for occupation by 27th November, 1957. By the end of the year under review six blocks had been completed and sites had been cleared and construction was in progress on a further eleven blocks. Work on the remaining eight blocks cannot be started until the present main runway at Kai Tak Airport is closed, which, it is expected, will be in September, 1958. On the 31st March, 1958, the new estate had a population of 5,669.
21. During the year under review the total population in resettle- ment estates and cottage areas increased by 22,707, from 213,501 to 236,208. This increase represents an additional 3,584 persons at Lo Fu Ngam estate, 1,583 at Li Cheng Uk, 6,699 at Shek Kip Mei, 5,669 (as already mentioned) at Wong Tai Sin, and 3,842 in the cottage areas.
22. The prospect of accommodation becoming available in sub- stantial quantity at Wong Tai Sin during the first six months of 1958 enabled the Department to undertake the clearance of an area required for construction of a new road to link the Shek Kip Mei and Tai Hang Tung Estates and for drainage works along the extension of Nan Chang Street. When the year under review closed only the first part of the clearance, involving about 700 people, had been carried out, but before the end of June, 1958, when the operation is due to be completed, 8,700 persons will have been moved from this densely populated and con- gested area, in which more than half the structures are of brick, stone, or reinforced concrete, rising sometimes to four storeys.
23. In late October, 1957, a large resettlement factory building, similar in appearance to the standard estate domestic block but actually of a new type, was completed on the Cheung Sha Wan reclamation. It contains 94,000 sq. ft. of workshop space suitable for the resettlement of squatter factories and workshops, mainly those using power-driven machinery, which cannot be accommodated in normal resettlement buildings. The site of the Wong Tai Sin estate contained a number of these concerns and if the new resettlement factory building had not been available the programme of clearance for this estate would have
6