persons who were then seeking any form of shelter that could be found in the Colony. There were, interspersed with these structures, plots of land still under cultivation by local farmers. Quite a large proportion of the structures on the site were of stone and were occupied by better class families. There were six large soy and preserved fruit factories, several other factories, workshops, and a number of shops. The estate site consisted in all of about 851 structures occupied by 1940 families, totalling 10,775 persons.
45. Clearance of the area would, of course, mean that landlords, most of them 'illegal' landlords, would lose their structures and with that their income from rents. For the cultivators it would mean loss of their existing means of livelihood. The shortage of land in the Colony is unfortunately so acute that no alternative land suitable for cultivation can normally be offered to persons involved in these clearances. If such land is leased from the Crown it has first to be resumed under the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance, and the former owner is legally entitled to the full market value of the land as assessed by a Com- pensation Board, one member of which represents the former lessees, and to which any former lessee may make personal representation. In addition, the former lessee or his legal tenant is entitled to compensation for the crops. If the land is only held on a temporary permit, or if it is Crown Land cultivated without a permit, the cultivator is not legally entitled to any compensation. In October, 1954, however it was decided that crop compensation should also be payable as an ex-gratia measure to illegal cultivators because of the virtual impossibility of such persons finding other land to cultivate. In April, 1957, it was decided also to pay an additional special ex-gratia allowance, the amount of which depends on the length of the time the cultivator has been in occupation and the area of land cultivated. Cultivators are also offered the choice between two alternative forms of resettlement-either a normal domestic upper floor room in an estate or a ground floor room in which to open a shop or to start some other new line of business.
46. The first group of persons to be cleared from Wong Tai Sin had to be accommodated in the nearby Lo Fu Ngam Estate where in addition to the normal domestic rooms in multi-storey blocks there was erected one block of seventy self-contained flats to provide for families who were living in accommodation of a better type than that normally found in squatter areas. All persons moved from the Wong Tai Sin site were given the option of returning there when accommodation in that estate was ready. Those who were moved later, after the first
12
3
i