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operation. I have been glad to learn also that many Members have found time to visit these areas and to see these things for themselves. As a result of the six experiments so far carried out 1,200 stalls have been reduced to their legal size, over a thousand new pedlar hawkers have been licensed, and 1,500 pedlar hawkers are now operating in four bazaars on controlled pitches which are allocated daily by the impartial method of the ballot. The additional revenue from the new licences has so far amounted to $20,000.
Street-trading is an honest and honourable trade and I want to make it absolutely clear that we do not intend to impose any unreasonable restrictions on hawkers. Our aim is to make things easier for the traders and for the public alike and to give every trader as far as possible an equal and fair opportunity to earn his living. As I have said before, I am convinced that no-one stands to lose, if these proposals are put into effect, except those petty gangsters who take advantage of the present situation to prey upon the hawkers. I am sure that this Council and the public as a whole will welcome anything which can be done towards putting an end to these contemptible practices.
Finally I take this opportunity of thanking Mr. Bernacchi for the work which he has done, as one member of a long-standing sub-committee of two, towards the analyzing of these problems and the production of this report. He has been good enough to say that he will second this motion, which I now commend to Council's favourable consideration.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI seconded.
He said: As you have just indicated I am glad to have the opportunity of seconding the adoption of a report with which you and I as the members of the two men sub-committee have had so much to do, and I appreciate your kind words of thanks to myself. I feel, however, that the person to whom most credit is due in respect to the preparatory work and preparation of the original draft which we have so very largely incorporated in the final report is Mr. Denis Bray, an Assistant Director of Urban Services, and of course the members of the Urban Services Department staff who have worked with him. (Hear hear). I think it is also appropriate to add here that much of the Committee work in connexion with this particular report fell on the shoulders of Mr. Teesdale when he was acting as Chairman of this Council during your absence on leave.
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As regards the contents of the report, like yourself I do not think it is necessary to enlarge at length upon them. If this report is adopted today it will I think represent the somewhat unusual combination of a compromise and a workable scheme. I say "compromise" advisedly because the problem of hawking is one on which there is a very wide divergence of view both among members of the public and indeed between members of this Council. Individual opinions vary from the extreme of believing that hawkers who "are after all only trying to earn an honest living" should be given a completely free hand to carry on their trade without serious interference from the Council, to those who consider that large scale hawking is incongruous and outmoded in the streets of a big modern city, that hawking particularly of foodstuffs whether cooked or uncooked is dangerous to the health of the community, and that the only real solution is total abolition.
As you will see from the introductory to the Hawkers Report many recommendations on the hawking problem have been advanced by various Committees in years gone by without very great avail and the two extremes in dealing with the problem have the advantage of great simplicity. We were of course bound to reject the suggestion of total abolition not only because of the serious hardship to a very large number of people at present earning their living from hawking but also because we felt that under the particular circumstances of Hong Kong hawking formed an integral part of the life of the community and catered for the needs of a very large proportion of our three million people. The alternative of giving up altogether any attempt to control hawking was also felt to be impracticable and certainly not likely to meet with approval from the Council as a whole. Preliminary meetings were therefore held between the Sub-Committee and the Head or Senior Members of various Government Departments including of course the Police, to see whether we could arrive at some common workable formula but, despite one or two very sound suggestions some of which were immediately implemented, we seemed as far removed as ever from any proposals for a workable overall policy. It was at this stage that Mr. Bray and his staff came into the picture to demonstrate vividly just how extensive was the problem that we were endeavouring to tackle and put forward proposals for a
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