MARINE DEPARTMENT LIBRA
Council, they have been allowed to stay and will be eligible resettlement when the area in which they live is redeveloped.) A list of the 15 cottage areas, with the population of each, is at Appendix 1.
102. The first buildings in the cottage areas were put up by the settlers themselves, but a number of welfare or non-profit-making organizations soon seized the opportunity to provide practical charitable assistance to people in need, and many of the cottages still standing were constructed by them. For example, the National Catholic Welfare Conference built 2,744 cottages, the Methodist Board of Missions 522, and the Church World Service 401; the Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation, a 1952 venture relying on both private donations and a measure of support from public funds, built over 1,500 cottages for sale to their occupants by hire purchase, a scheme which has long been completed. Some voluntary agencies continue to administer their own cottages, collecting the rent, supervising the tenancies and carrying out all necessary maintenance under the general guidance of the department, but most agencies found it more convenient to transfer ownership of their cottages to the Government, to be administered by the Resettlement Department. Details of the rents and permit fees charged are in Chapter 9 and Appendix 4. Such has been the rapidity of change in Hong Kong that many of the cottage areas which were set up in what were then outlying districts have now become surrounded by multi-storey urban development.
103. During the year 618 cottages were cleared from Chai Wan cottage area, to make way for a multi-storey estate; 96 from King's Park cottage area for the formation of an access road to 'a borrow area' for the airport runway extension, and for railway re-alignment and school sites; and 34 from Ngau Tau Kok cottage area to provide a site for a market and an estate office.
PRIMARY EDUCATION AND WELFARE
104. The cottage areas contain many schools and welfare facilities, which pay a nominal fee of $2.50 a quarter for their sites. The activities of the various bodies working in the Ngau Tau Kok cottage area are typical of those to be found elsewhere. Built mainly between 1952 and 1956 in what was then a rural area, this is one of the larger cottage areas, its present authorized population of 7,400 consists of 1,323 families, who live in 1,235 individual structures. The principal social and educational work is in the hands of the Maryknoll Mission which
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