occupants are resettled into the estates. When a Resettlement Assistant finds an entirely new building or an unauthorized extension to a tolerated structure, he tries to persuade the owner to demolish it. If the owner fails to do this (as happens more often than not), the building is demolished by the department and the confiscated building materials may subsequently be used to help the poorer squatters in building huts in licensed areas.
18. The remaining list of duties performed by the Squatter Control Sub-Division is a varied one. There is a good deal of case-work and investigation, and Resettlement Assistants are sometimes asked to settle disputes and complaints among squatters. They are required to stop interlopers from taking up residence in huts which have been screened for resettlement, and they play a part in the procedure of clearing an area during a resettlement operation. They assist in the registration of squatter families whose huts have been destroyed or damaged by fire or typhoon, arrange temporary shelter in transit camps, of which the department maintains seven in Hong Kong, Kowloon and Tsuen Wan, and arrange for the subsequent resiting of the families concerned, if necessary. They also keep a record of destroyed or seriously damaged huts after natural disasters so that rebuilding and other grants can be paid to the victims from the Community Relief Trust Fund.
19. During the year under review, a total of 11,968 new or re-erected structures or extensions to tolerated ones were demolished by the squatter control staff, and another 4,093 were dismantled by their owners. 437 of these were on the roofs of permanent buildings. The figure for all demolitions is nearly 2% higher than that of the previous year. 76 tons of materials, mostly loose wood and tin sheeting, were confiscated. By the end of the year under review, there were estimated to be 380,000 people still living in tolerated squatter huts, which again represents a reduction on previous years, as the following table in round figures illustrates:
31st March
Squatters
Resitees/
Licensees
1965
1966
...
..
463,000
75,300
...
...
***
•
...
...
430,000
84,800
1967
:
...
+++
428,000
57,100
1968
...
409,000
33,600
1969
***
•
...
***
401,000
27,700
1970
+++
***
380,000
31,145
7