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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
THE CHAIRMAN moved---
"That this Council accept the Statement of Progress and Policy tabled today, and in particular endorse the summary of the Council's main aims for the year 1958-59 as set out in the final paragraph of the Statement."
He said: It has been customary in the past for members to review and criticize past achievements and future aims of this Council on the first meeting in the year. This has come to be known as the Annual Conventional Debate but in fact on previous occasions there was no substantive motion.
This year a substantive motion is based on the Statement of Progress and Policy in order to focus attention more specifically on the tasks before the Council.
DR. TENG seconded.
MR. FUNG PING FAN :-It is with pleasure that I note in the last two paragraphs of the Statement of Progress and Policy under the heading "Resettlement" that accompanies the Motion tabled before Council that efforts would be exerted towards the energetic prosecution of the resettlement problem, and in this connexion I would like to say a few words.
It is gratifying to know that a large resettlement factory building of a new type was ready in Cheung Sha Wan since before the end of last year. It seems to me that in order to release some of the more valuable sites for the purpose of building more resettlement blocks-sites that are now occupied by squatter factories, whether in tolerated areas or not-it would be a good idea to erect more such resettlement factory buildings for light industries so that the workers can be near their place of employment instead of having to travel far to and from work, thus also helping to relieve congestion on our public transports and at the same time conserving their energy which can be better directed to the production of a higher standard quality of goods. Once the present factory sites are taken back by Government it would be most difficult for the existing factories owners to rehabilitate themselves, and it is even more difficult for them to build fire-proof factories. This idea can go hand in hand with the present scheme to expedite
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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the work of building more resettlement blocks, but I am referring to small factories for light industries only, and not to large factories that are being built at Kun Tong and other large industrial parts of the Colony.
The hot weather is gradually upon us, and our thought naturally turns to swimming which is a most health-inducing pastime. For a Colony the size of Hong Kong, with a population approximating close to 3 millions, we have an absurdly inadequate number of public swimming pools to meet the need of the people. The existing one government and a few private pools are well patronized, thus showing the popularity of what one may describe as pool swimming. Of course, for the better and more lively enjoyment there is nothing like swimming in some of the more frequented beaches, but even so we do not have a sufficiently large number of beaches suitable for the use of the ordinary working class, as unless one can afford the means of travelling down to some of the 'luxurious' beaches out in the suburb, one must content oneself by swimming in the more congested and less hygienic places within the harbour limit where the water often is polluted, and very often littered with rubbish, either washed back with the tide or strewn about by people. For the most economical and hygienic way of swimming there is nothing to compare with a swimming pool where the water is regularly filtered and the pool periodically cleansed, thus ensuring freedom from contamination.
Whilst Hong Kong Island is fortunate to have its Victoria Swimming Pool which is becoming more and more popular every day, Kowloon still has to wait for its own swimming pool. Those of us who were here during the first few years immediately after the liberation of the Colony in 1945 will doubtless remember that many necessary amenities were then denied the Colony due to lack of fund in the government treasury. Today such an excuse would be untenable, and so it is quite time that Kowloon got some attention in the matter of providing this much-needed amenity, namely, a decent size swimming pool equal to the Victoria Swimming Pool, for the population of Kowloon have also been increasing with the years during the last decade or so. There is need to build a few more pools both in Hong Kong and Kowloon.
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