twenty eight days in arrears or unless the permittee is persistently more than fourteen days late in making his rent payments. A total of 118 permits had to be cancelled during the year under review; 104 were cancelled for non-payment of rent, ten for unauthorized transfers and four for trafficking in heroin or opium.
75. In order to spread out rent collections over the whole month each estate is divided into sections, each of which has a different date for payment. If for example the payment date for a section is the 12th the rent paid on that date will be for the month ending on the 12th of the following month. As all the rooms in each section have the same payment date it is easier for the estate staff to remind settlers when payments are due. The regular and constant attention paid by the staff to this matter has produced results which may be regarded as not unsatisfactory. Out of a total of $4,975,659 due in rents for the financial year 1957/58 only $2,060 had to be written off as irrecoverable arrears.
76. The Urban Council is kept in close touch with the problems of the multi-storey estates in two ways. Firstly, through its Resettlement Estates Select Committee which meets regularly once a month, each meeting being normally preceded by a visit to an estate. The subjects with which this Committee deals are of a great variety and include evictions, heroin cases, applications from voluntary agencies for the allocation of rooftops or rooms, other matters connected with the health and welfare of the settlers, and the hundred and one problems which must arise when very large numbers of people have to live together at such close quarters. Secondly, each Member of the Council may, if he so wishes, become a Visiting Member to the estates and will then visit one section of about two blocks every month. This close personal contact between the Members of the Council and the multi-storey estates is of great assistance to the administrative staff.
77. On the 31st March, 1958, there were 147,489 persons living in the 28,715 rooms and the 155 flats of the six and seven storey buildings in Shek Kip Mei, Li Cheng Uk, Tai Hang Tung, Hung Hom, Lo Fu Ngam and Wong Tai Sin and another 11,173 persons in the 1,850 rooms of the temporary Bowring Bungalows at Shek Kip Mei which have not yet been demolished. The total population is 158,662 persons, com- prising 34,150 families and 2,839 single persons, the average family size being 4.56 persons (excluding single persons). Particulars of the population of the estates may be found at Appendix I at the end of this report.
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