few tenancies are terminated for arrears of rent. Out of a total of $24,817,121 due in rents for the financial year 1963-64 only $4,040.00 had to be written off as irrecoverable arrears.
59. Apart from tenancy control, one of the major worries of the department is the relief of overcrowding. When rooms are allocated at a density approaching 24 square feet for each adult person in a household (two children under the age of ten to count as one adult) overcrowding will obviously occur after a few years, taking into account the normal expansion of any family due to births and the addition of dependants such as a widowed mother or father. In Hong Kong, additions from the latter category are more numerous than they would be in most commu- nities, since on their first arrival in the Colony many families are split and have left behind wives, husbands or children in their native place. These persons frequently arrive in the Colony years after the other members of their family, who by this time, through the operation of the clearance programme, may have become tenants in resettlement estates. The department can hardly refuse entry to wives, husbands or dependent children though they swell very considerably the total number of persons living in estates. Obviously management policy must be sufficiently flexible to take these special circumstances into account and must include a programme to relieve overcrowding when this becomes necessary. During the year under review this matter was again considered by the two Committees of the Urban Council.
60. Some administrative changes took place during the year by way of decentralization. The dispersal of case files from headquarters to the individual estates and the delegation of more authority to officers-in- charge of estates to enable them to deal with matters which hitherto came to headquarters has speeded up routine work considerably and freed senior officers in headquarters from routine duties. The large num- bers of settlers and the great increase which is expected within the next few years, made this step essential for effective management. Decen- tralization has not yet been extended to all cstates, but the results so far have exceeded expectation, and there is no doubt that tenants and staff alike have benefited by the more cfficient and speedy despatch of business.
61. The headquarters of the Estates Division is situated in the Resettle- ment Department headquarters at Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, where the staff take the more important decisions in tenancy work, deal with all aspects of general management of the estates, and formulate any necessary changes of policy for approval by the competent authority which, in the
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