non-profit making organizations who built standard-type stone cottages which are either donated outright to Government or are rented or sold by hire-purchase agreement to persons eligible for resettlement. In addition to the domestic structures there are a number of shops, factories, small workshops, large permanent school buildings and welfare centres.
70. The number of persons to the acre in the cottage areas varies considerably from one area to another but the average is about 400, as against an average at present of about 2,000 persons to the acre in the multi-storey estates. Although this is not an entirely fair comparison, since much of the land in a cottage area consists of steep and unusable banks, it is none the less true to say that the living conditions in a small cottage on a hill-side terrace are in general pleasanter than those in a room of a similar size in a multi-storey building, even though they may be less convenient, particularly in wet weather, as the communal water standpipes and latrines are usually some distance away.
71. Development of these areas is now on a minor scale because the extreme shortage of land adjoining the urban areas makes it necessary to use every available site for multi-storey buildings. There is the further point that although one-storey buildings are cheaper to build in terms of cost of square foot of floor space there are other factors which make this form of resettlement expensive; the capital cost of making the terraces, roads, paths, steps and drains is often considerable; and even when these essentials have been provided the cottage areas are still expensive to maintain and to protect against erosion and rainstorm damage.
72. At the end of the year under review, the total number of cottages built by charitable and non-profit making organizations was 4,785, an increase of 779 over the previous year. Many of these cottages were used to rehouse families who had previously been living in delapidated wooden huts. The vacated huts were demolished providing in turn more sites for new stone cottages, and in a step by step process, the old wooden huts are gradually being replaced by durable stone cottages. Of the new cottages 501 were built by the National Catholic Welfare Conference. These cottages have a floor area of between 150 and 175 square feet and cost about $1,250; on completion they are handed over to the Resettlement Department which in turn rents them to authorized settlers for $10 a month. The Church World Service built 183 cottages during the year under review, the American Presbyterian Mission twelve,
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