GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
1.01. Development in both the private and Government sectors continued to expand, and though there was some slowing down in the rate of increase, expenditure on private building works amounted to $827 million compared with $668 million the previous year. Public Works Department expenditure, excluding personal emoluments, totalled $544 million compared with $538 million in 1963–64. However, in 1963-64 some $50 million was spent on the Water Emergency—mostly on the chartering of tankers. In 1964-65 expenditure in this account was about $16 million.
1.02. There was some slowing down in the private sector towards the end of the year as a result of the Building (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance, 1964, which was passed in September 1964 and gave the Building Authority the power to prohibit building works which could not be undertaken without endangering the stability of other buildings. By the end of 1964 development proposals on 283 sites had been affected by this new legislation, and the effect on private development was serious.
1.03. In September 1964, His Excellency the Governor appointed the Director of Public Works to be Chairman of a Working Party to investigate and report on the problems involved in slum clearance in the urban areas. In December, the terms of reference of the Working Party were extended to give priority to examining the effects on the redevelopment of building sites in the urban areas of the Building (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance, referred to above.
1.04. The drought conditions of the previous year prevailed until the advent of Typhoon Viola on 27th May 1964, which brought sufficient rain to permit the ending of the restricted supply of 4 hours every fourth day, which was first imposed on 1st June 1963.
1.05. On 27th April 1964, an agreement was signed with the Peoples' Council of Kwangtung for the supply of a minimum of 15,000 million gallons of water per annum. The new agreement came into effect on 1st March 1965, and the Director of Public Works, accompanied by Mr. T. O. Morgan, Mr. E. P. Wilmot-Morgan, and Mr. Suen Te-hau of the Waterworks Office, and Mr. G. P. Norton of Public Works Department Head...