B.
ADMINISTRATION, MAINTENANCE AND DEVELOPMENT
85. All families in the cottage areas pay quarterly permit fees to Government for their sites, the amount depending both on the size of the site and the location of the area. For an average site of between 150 and 170 sq. ft. the permit fee is now $5 a quarter in the outlying areas and $15 a quarter in the central areas. If the permittee does not own the cottage he occupies he will also have to pay a monthly rent or hire purchase payment to the owner.
86. Revenue from permit fees in 1957/58 amounted to $1,090,477 compared with $1,026,287 for the previous year. Rent from Government- owned cottages amounted to $123,106 for the year 1957/58.
87. During the year under review staff of the Department carried out a census of the cottage area population. This has provided much useful information for future planning and it is intended to have others at regular intervals.
88. Although the basic principles governing the administration of the cottage areas are the same as those for the multi-storey estates and many of the problems are common to both, there are several important differences. The difficulties which arise with the concentration of up to 60,000 persons in one estate do not exist, but there are others peculiar to the cottage areas. One is the problem of fire risk, which is non- existent in the multi-storey estates but is ever present in the wooden hut sections of some of the cottage areas. Fire-fighting teams have therefore been established in these areas, drawn from the staff of the Department and from the settlers, sometimes with the co-operation of the local Kaifong Welfare Association, as at Chai Wan. The need for such fire- fighting teams was demonstrated by the number of small fires that occurred during the year which, if they had not been promptly tackled by the teams, might well have caused serious damage.
89. Another important difference lies in the fact that whereas the sites for multi-storey estates are formed and developed by the Public Works Department, which is thereafter also responsible for all main- tenance work, in the cottage areas development and maintenance are the responsibility of the Resettlement Department, and it is normally only such work as road surfacing which is carried out by the Public Works Department. The maintenance of the terraces, paths, roads, steps, retaining walls and contour catchwaters cannot in fact be separated from the administration of a cottage area. It is the responsibility of the administrative staff of Area Officers, who work and live on the spot, to
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