the first time to plan a programme of squatter clearance. The spare accommodation at Tai Hang Tung was used to begin the clearance of two sites one of seven acres south of the Tai Hang Tung fire site (for an extension to that resettlement estate), the other of fourteen acres for a new estate at Li Cheng Uk. All these estates were in the north-western part of Kowloon. The development of the twelve cottage areas in existence when the Department started was also accelerated and work was begun on two new cottage areas, one at Tai Wo Ping in the hills north of Shek Kip Mei, and the other at Tai Wo Hau, near Tsuen Wan, in the New Territories.
11. The first clearances into the new accommodation made available in this way were for fire lanes in the more densely populated of the squatter areas remaining. By the middle of 1955 sufficient progress had been made for the Department to concentrate on the most important of its functions the clearance of land for the various forms of permanent development required by a rapidly expanding community, that is for housing, schools, hospitals, factories, and for such public works as roads, drains, and water supply systems.
12. Land cannot however be freed of large numbers of squatters until alternative accommodation can be provided and it was clear that the construction of multi-storey resettlement estates was the only prac- tical method of providing this accommodation on the scale needed. It was also clear that the very large number of sites required for the Colony's expansion, nearly all of which were occupied by squatters, meant that the development of resettlement estates would have to continue at maximum speed for a number of years to come.
13. This commitment has been accepted. The first three estates have been followed by new estates at Hung Hom, Lo Fu Ngam and Wong Tai Sin and a redevelopment scheme is gradually replacing by new multi-storey blocks the emergency Bowring Bungalows at Shek Kip Mei. By the end of March 1958, 245 acres of land had been cleared of squatters and used for permanent development, of which sixty nine acres were for the construction of resettlement estates.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE YEAR
14. On 1st April, 1958, there were altogether 236,208 people living in resettlement accommodation 158,662 in the six multi-storey estates and Bowring Bungalows and 77,546 in the fourteen cottage areas. At
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