of which were re-established in estate shop sites or in the resettlement factory at Cheung Sha Wan.
19. It was also possible to clear and resettle 4,530 people who had been victims of squatter fires in previous years and who had in the meantime been living in temporary huts on the streets. These included the last of the victims of the Tai Po Road fire of 1954, 2,408 persons from the Fa Hui fire of 1956 and 564 persons from the Tin Hau Temple Road fire of 1956. This last group was brought across the harbour by ferry and resettled at Hung Hom Estate.
20. During the year under review, there were a further twenty nine squatter fires in which a total of 6,010 persons were made homeless. It was, however, possible to allow almost all the families affected to rebuild their huts either on the fire site itself or on Crown Land in the vicinity and only 500 persons had to move on to the streets.
21. The policy was continued of offering sites in cottage areas and ground floor rooms in the estates to welfare agencies, and the rooftops of all estate blocks are now allocated for use as schools or boys' and girls' clubs. In order to improve educational facilities in the estates it has been agreed that the design of the estate blocks should be modified —and it is interesting to note that this is the first major change in the design of these buildings since a seventh floor was added in 1955. The new design will provide rooms measuring 20 by 25 feet, that is twice the width of the rooms in existing estates and a more suitable size for school class rooms. The ordinary domestic rooms on the upper floors will continue to be partitioned to provide an economic family unit, while schools of an economic size will be established on the ground floor. All new estate blocks are to be built to the new design and a sufficient number of blocks are to be reserved to provide schooling for as many estate children as possible while at the same time leaving enough ground floor rooms to meet the needs of shops for settlers and for clinics and welfare services.
22. The rooftop schools are reserved for settlers' children, who are also to be given priority for places in the new ground floor schools; there are in addition an increasing number of schools in the vicinity of estates which they can attend. A 24-classroom Government school was opened at Li Cheng Uk Estate in September 1958 and at the end of the year two more Government schools were under construction at Wong Tai Sin and Shek Kip Mei Estates. In addition there is a Government school near Tai Hang Tung Estate and six Government-subsidized
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