5.
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Commerce and Industry who, pending amalgamation, will administer it as well as his own department.
19.
It will be recollected that last year the old Development Secretariat was abolished and its various sub- departments were shown under separate heads. As a result of further experience, however, the conclusion has now been reached that a certain measure of coordination is necessary between these departments and, moreover, that this would make for economy. You have now approved in your telegram No.319 of the 6th March proposals for the Agricultural, Forestry, Gardens and Fisheries Departments and the Fish and Vegetable Marketing Organisations to be placed under the control of a technical officer who might be drawn from any of these depart- ments but who will in the first instance be the Senior Agricul- tural Officer. It will in consequence be necessary in due course to appoint a more junior agricultural officer to take charge of the agricultural department but the cost of this will be more than offset by economies in other directions and when the departments can be housed under one roof there will be further savings in messengers, transport, etc. As your approval was not received until the estimates had been framed, the departments in question are still shown separately but, where a post is vacant which will not be required under the new organisation it has been omitted It will be a comparatively simple matter to complete the re-organisation by administrative action.
20.
It will be observed that there has been a considerable increase in special expenditure under the Civil Aviation Head in spite of the fact that Kai Tak is at the moment passing through rather a slack period. From being over extended during the summer months when the staff had to deal with a peak of 3,188 aircraft per month, the number using the airport dropped to 503 in January. This of course only represents the European and United States traffic. The great bulk of the aircraft normally using Kai Tak are flying to destinations in China and the future of this traffic is still obscure. Never- theless, it is essential that the airport should be kept up to date in every respect and provision has accordingly been included for more sodium lights for use in periods of bad visibility and for more up to date fire fighting equipment which, together with the extension of the water mains being provided for under Public Works Non-recurrent, will cost some $300,000.
21. As regards the education head, there are now 830 schools of all sorts in operation in the Colony, which is about 100 more than existed at this time last year. In view of this increase in numbers and in an effort to combat Communist infiltration in the schools, the senior inspectorate staff of the department has been strengthened. A considerable building programme has been provided for both under Public Works Non-recurrent and from Loan Funds. Work on the Kowloon Junior School and the Vernacular Primary School is proceeding satisfactorily. Work has now started on, the new Queen's College and on two floors of the old King's College building which are being rehabilitated. Sir Robert Ho Tung has also kindly promised to contribute towards the cost of a girls' school which will bear his name and provision for the Govern- ment contribution has tentatively been made under Public Works
Non-recurrent.
22. School fees are being increased with effect from the 1st September, which is the beginning of the new school year. With certain minor exceptions, fees in Government schools have not been altered since 1931 and consequently they bear no relation to the cost of education or to the fees charged in private schools. In order that this measure, which has the
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