fare Conference has built 2,744 stone cottages, the Methodist Board of Missions 522 and the Church World Service 401. Another body, the Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation, was set up in September, 1952, financed partly by the Government and partly by private sub- scription. In the next few years, it built over 1,500 cottages which it sold under a hire-purchase arrangement to their occupants, who are now in full ownership of them. Some of the voluntary agencies prefer to administer the cottages 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 the Government, and the Resettlement Department administers them. Permit fees and rents are dealt with in Chapter 10 and Appendix IV.
56. 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 districts. They are therefore increasingly liable to redevelop- ment. In the period under review, 43 cottages and 1 factory were cleared and 321 persons rehoused in resettlement estates, as against 11,462 during the previous year. These removals occurred in the Lai Chi Kok, Ngau Tau Kok, Chai Wan and Ho Man Tin Cottage Areas.
57. This running down of cottage areas is balanced to some extent by fresh responsibilities in the New Territories, where new cottages continue to be built. A new cottage area at Fo Tan, outside Sha Tin, with a contribution from the Community Relief Trust Fund, is now under construction and due to be completed in October 1966. This cottage area, consisting of 13 two-storey blocks of 176 domestic units, 14 shops, a staff quarter and an office, is designed to rehouse 1,200 victims from Sha Tin of Typhoon 'Wanda' which struck the Colony on the 1st September 1962.
58. In Rennie's Mill Village, which was gazetted as a cottage resettlement area in 1963, various works of improvement begun in the previous financial year continued. During the year under review, 8,597 feet of cemented paths/steps, a large reinforced concrete bridge and 854 feet of wire-net fencing were constructed by the Works Division of the Resettlement Development in various sections of the area. Improvements were also made to the drainage and water supply. In order to improve health standards in the village, a plan is being drawn up to convert some of the existing aqua privies into flush latrines. A temporary public pier, primarily for passenger ferries, is under con- struction and is expected to be completed in mid-1966. The Christian
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