roads, paths and drains and installed latrines, water standpipes and public lighting for the settlers. All cottage areas are liable to eventual clearance, with the resettlement of their occupants into multi-storey estate blocks.
44. The first cottage areas were established in 1948 for squatters in central areas who were offered sites in more outlying districts which, it was then thought, would not be required for other development in the foreseeable future. There are now fourteen cottage areas in Kowloon, Hong Kong Island and the New Territories, containing 8,905 stone or brick cottages and 2,761 wooden huts, in addition to 351 shops and 86 factories and workshops; 74,729 authorized settlers and 14,817 tolerated unauthorized persons live in them. (Tolerated unauthorized persons are those who came into the areas before the end of December 1961. By a decision of the Urban Council they have been allowed to stay and will be eligible for resettlement when the area in which they live is redeveloped). A list of the cottage areas with the population of each is at Appendix II.
45. Although the settlers themselves constructed the first buildings, many of the cottages now to be seen were built by charitable and non- profit-making organizations. For instance, the National Catholic Welfare Conference has built 2,744 stone cottages, the Methodist Board of Mission 522 and the Church World Service 401. Another body, the Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation, was set up in September 1952, financed partly by Government and partly by private subscription. In the next few years it built over 1,500 cottages which it sold under a hire-purchase arrangement to their occupants, who are in full ownership of them. Some of the voluntary agencies prefer to administer the cot- tages they have built; that is, they collect the rent, manage the tenancies, and carry out maintenance and repair work under the department's general guidance. Other agencies have transferred the ownership of their cottages to Government, and the Resettlement Department administers them. Permit fees and rents are dealt with in Chapter X and Appendix VII.
46. Many of the cottage areas are now situated in the urban area, though at the time they were established they were considered to be in outlying distircts. They are therefore increasingly liable to redevelop- ment, a process which is likely to speed up in the next few years. In the period under review 894 cottages, 240 huts and 36 shops were cleared and 11,462 persons rehoused in resettlement estates, as against 3,490
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