terraces and paths and their maintenance and protection against rainstorm damage is considerable.
72. For these reasons the further development of these areas has been reduced to a minimum and indeed the contrary process has begun of converting them to more intensive use. During the year 578 cottages were cleared from the Tung Tau area, to make way for a new multi- storey estate; 401 wooden huts and stone cottages were cleared from the Chai Wan area for the construction of an access road to Chai Wan Estate; and 58 cottages were cleared from Tai Hang Sai to provide for the widening of the Tai Hang Tung link road. The settlers who were cleared were transferred to multi-storey estates or, in the case of some of the Chai Wan settlers, to new cottages in the same area. Development during the year was limited to four cottage areas, Chai Wan, Ngau Tau Kok, Chuk Yuen and Tai Wo Hau, where a total of 834 cottages were built by the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the Methodist Board of Missions, and the Church World Service. These cottages were allocated to 2,028 settlers who were previously living in wooden huts in these areas and to 1,798 squatters resettled during the year.
73. These additional settlers, together with the natural increase among the families already resettled, counterbalanced the reduction in numbers caused by the clearances and the overall population of the cottage areas showed a slight increase of 842 persons at the end of the year. Details of this population are given in the Appendix at the end of this Report.
74. 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 people in one estate do not exist, but there are others peculiar to the cottage areas. There is for example the risk of fire breaking out among the wooden huts remaining in the arcas, and the departmental staff have been organized into fire-fighting teams. There were two fires during the year, at the Ho Man Tin and Chai Wan Cottage Areas, in which altogether 94 huts were destroyed and 557 settlers made homeless; the damage might well have been greater had not the departmental teams attacked the fire before the arrival of the Fire Brigade and prevented it spreading.
75. As most cottage areas are sited on steep hillsides, often of decomposed granite scarred by deeply eroded gullies, there is also the danger of landslides and collapse of terraces, and there is a constant
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