example, the rent day for a section is the 12th the rent paid on that date will be for the period ending on the 11th of the following month. As all the rooms in each section have the same rent day it is easier for the estate staff to remind settlers when payments are due. Out of a total of $20,124,814.50 due in rents for the financial year 1962-63 only $3,821.50 had to be written off as irrecoverable arrears.
63. The Urban Council is in close touch with the problems of the multi-storey estates. The Resettlement Areas and Estates Select Com- mittee, now redesignated the Resettlement Management Select Com- mittee, meets once a month. The subjects with which this Committee deals are of great variety and include evictions, applications from voluntary agencies for the allocation of rooftops and rooms, and the hundred and one other matters which must arise when very large numbers of people have to live together at such close quarters. In addition most members of the Council also act as visiting members to a particular estate. By this means Councillors are able to keep them- selves informed of conditions in estates and to bring to the notice of the Resettlement Department any points which they feel require attention.
64. On 31st March, 1963, 213 six-, seven- and eight-storey Mark I and Mark II blocks, providing a total of 95,576 rooms and 1,907 flats in twelve estates, had been taken over by the Department. The popula- tion was 462,582 persons, comprising 87,478 families, the average family size being 5.28 persons. Population details are set out at Appendix I to this report.
CHAPTER VI
WELFARE IN THE ESTATES AND AREAS
65. The resettlement estates and areas, with their large concen- trations of people, present both a great need and a great opportunity for welfare work of all descriptions. Apart from the welfare activities now in operation, applications are still being received incessantly from welfare organizations and missionary societies for the allocation of such accommodation.
66. In the cottage areas schools and welfare centres have been built by voluntary agencies on sites provided by the Department. A nominal fee of $2.50 per quarter is charged for these sites. Because of the gradual clearance of cottage areas for redevelopment, there is less need for new cottages but during the year the Methodist Board of Missions
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