ARINE DEPARTMENT LIBRARY
Mark II blocks in 54 months from May 1960 to October 1964; the 142 Mark III blocks in 38 months from February 1964 to March 1967; and the earliest of the 56 Mark IV blocks, which in turn have become obsoles- cent, only date from April 1965.
74. A new design, known as Mark VI, was on the planning board at the end of the year. The design takes into account the recent Housing Board recommendation (mentioned in Chapter 1) that the basic space allocation on resettlement be increased from 24 square feet to 35 square feet for each adult. Mark VI blocks will be built in Ham Tin (Area B) and Pak Tin estates as well as in a number of smaller estates planned on Hong Kong Island.
75. By 31st March, 1968 the Public Works Department and Hong Kong's building contractors had built 453 multi-storey blocks containing 203,487 rooms. The largest estate managed by the Resettlement Depart- ment is now Tsz Wan Shan which with a population of 120,000 has already overtaken Wong Tai Sin which has 82,000 tenants. Tsz Wan Shan, which was begun in 1962 and should be finished in 1969, will eventually house 170,000 people, while two other estates further east beyond Kwun Tong will have populations of 130,000 and 104,000 respectively.
76. The opening of Ngau Tau Kok estate during the year brought the total number of estates to 22 providing housing for over 900,000 people.
POPULATION
77. By the end of the year 1967-68, the total number of authorized persons living in the estates was 967,184,* which represents an increase of 105,971 during the year. Appendices 1 and 10 show the detailed figures and also the progressive rise through the years in graphic form. Appendix 5 also shows the same figures divided among the various existing Marks of blocks. (The number of unauthorized residents is not known precisely, since they do not advertize their presence and are not easily discovered.) The increase in the estate population was smaller than the number of people offered resettlement, as quoted in paragraph 56. This is mainly because of the time-lag between the offer of resettlement and the actual installation of the tenant, and also because of some last-minute refusals to accept the accommodation offered.
* The 'millionth settler' referred to in paragraph 16 was calculated with reference
to cottage areas as well as estates.
27