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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
As has been maintained in the Hawker Report and as Mr. Holmes said at the Council Meeting in February it is impossible to introduce and maintain proper hawker control with present resources. No alternative proposal for using our present resources to greater effect has yet been put forward. Until the Hawker Report is accepted by Government and the control staff recruited I can give no assurance that the hawker control arrangements now in force in the hawker demonstration areas mentioned in my reply to another question can be extended.
In approving the Hawker Report, Council may, I think, be taken to concur with this view and to have endorsed the proposals for dealing with these conditions. If any Member or Select Committee can suggest an alternative solution, I have no doubt that it would receive the full support of other Members."
MR. SALES :-With your permission I wish to ask a supplementary question.
CHAIRMAN :-Yes, Mr. Sales.
MR. SALES:-Do I understand, Mr. Chairman, that you implied in your reply that the blame for the conditions existing in the market—in the particular market which I have named—rests entirely on hawkers?
CHAIRMAN:-I do not so imply.
MR. SALES: In the circumstances, Mr. Chairman, may I further ask a supplementary question? Do I have your permission?
CHAIRMAN :-You have my permission.
MR. SALES-Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you may be aware, I have suggested in the Select Committee concerned that the conditions which are now obtaining in Shamshuipo could be duplicated in Nga Tsin Wai with a bit of exertion. Has that been tried, Mr. Chairman? The experiment which we introduced in Shamshuipo, has it been tried in Nga Tsin Wai?
CHAIRMAN :-It has not been tried, Mr. Sales.
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MR. SALES-Again with your permission, may I suggest that the Department make an effort to introduce that scheme also in Nga Tsin Wai, without waiting for the Hawkers Report to be adopted and the road to be removed?
CHAIRMAN:-This is a suggestion, Mr. Sales, and not a question. I regret it is out of order.
MR. SALES :-May I then rephrase it, Mr. Chairman. Will the Chair direct the Select Committee concerned to introduce that experiment in Nga Tsin Wai?
CHAIRMAN:-I regret that I am not in a position to direct the Select Committee.
MR. SALES-Will you bring it to their attention?
CHAIRMAN:-I will bring it to the attention of the Select Committee.
MR. SALES-Thank you, Sir.
MR. LI YIU BOR asked the following question :-
"As the Commissioner for Resettlement has already said that the victims of the Taipo Road fire still living in Shamshuipo streets will be resettled in the next few weeks, will the Chairman state whether or not the temporary public latrines and bath-houses built originally for them in the middle of Cheung Sha Wan Road will be removed after all the fire-victims have been resettled?
These wooden structures have been the subject of many complaints, and I think you will agree, Sir, that the sooner they can be removed, the better it will be for all concerned."
THE CHAIRMAN tabled the following written reply:-
"I am in close touch with the Commissioner for Resettlement and, as soon as the last of the fire victims is removed from Cheung Sha Wan Road, the temporary latrines and bathhouses there will be removed probably within a few hours. Some of the latrines have already been removed as the number of fire victims has reduced and there now remains only one bank for squatters in Nan Chang Street."
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