cottages were required for a new resettlement estate and for roads; and 2,038 settlers were moved to other accommodation from Bowring Bungalows at Shek Kip Mei Estate that were demolished under the development scheme.
14. This additional population was accommodated in 31 multi-storey estate blocks built by the Public Works Department and 834 cottages built by voluntary agencies during the year. Multi-storey blocks were built at two new estates, Jordan Valley and Kwun Tong; at Wong Tai Sin Estate, whose population rose during the year from 35,620 to 51,081, making it second only to Shek Kip Mei in size; and at Lo Fu Ngam, Chai Wan, Li Cheng Uk and Shek Kip Mei Estates. Additional cottages were built at Ngau Tau Kok, Chai Wan and Tai Wo Hau Resettlement Areas.
15. The total population in the estates increased by 49,863 to 246,821. The population in the cottage areas showed a small increase of 842 to 82,482 persons, the number of settlers cleared during the year being counterbalanced by the natural increase of families in the areas and by the resettlement into new cottages of 1,798 squatters.
16. As usual the main bulk of clearances effected were to free land for the construction of new resettlement estates. Sites were also cleared for other housing schemes, schools, roads, reservoirs, and other similar projects. A total of 209.88 acres of land was cleared in all, of which 49.8 acres were under cultivation.
17. The two most important clearances during the year were those at Tung Tau and Wang Tau Hom, both for future resettlement estates. The Tung Tau clearance was particularly complicated as the clearance area contained settlers from the Tung Tau Resettlement Area, squatters, a large number of factories, and a number of good houses on leased building land. 8,056 persons were resettled while some 3,000 'imposters' in the squatter areas and unauthorized occupants of the cottage area, neither of whom were eligible for resettlement, had to be dispersed.
18. The Wang Tau Hom clearance, though it involved the clearance of a large number of people, did not present so many difficulties. The clearance area, some 65 acres in the eroded foothills north of Lo Fu Ngam, was closely packed with huts occupied mainly by Chiu Chow people. They were resettled at the new estate at Kwun Tong, some four miles away, and it was not at first certain that the squatters would be willing to move to such a distant and, to them, inconvenient site since
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