HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
For the information of Members I have asked the Telephone Company to supply figures of the number of calls made from kiosks in estates and areas in recent months, and I will circulate these figures to Members as soon as they are received together with any further information regarding any difficulties such as shortages of lines experienced by the Telephone Company in installing such facilities.
In conclusion little evidence has reached the Department that settlers experience any difficulty in making telephone calls when they wish to do so, but any requests for better facilities will receive sympathetic consideration.”
MR. CHAN SHU-WOON asked the following question:
"I was informed that the space to keep the pigs at Ma Tau Kok abattoir is too small, that is, it can only hold fifteen hundred pigs before they are conveyed to the abattoir. Under such circumstance, the pig merchants have to wait for two or three days before their pigs can be delivered to the slaughterhouse. Pending the delivery, the pigs are kept aboard the vessels, thus causing them unnecessary delay, operating expenses, and loss incurred on account of the sickness or death of their pigs. I would like to know, Mr. Chairman, is it possible to improve the situation by enlarging the present space for keeping the pigs at Ma Tau Kok Slaughterhouse or using alternative places available in order to keep more pigs, say, three thousand at one time prior to the completion of the new Kowloon Slaughterhouse?"
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
"Accommodation for animals at the slaughterhouses is the concern of the Director of Agriculture and Forestry, though officers of the Urban Services Department do assist with the day to day running of the depots. Whilst the official accommodation is only for some fifteen hundred pigs, dealers have been permitted to erect pens with matshed roofs on all the open spaces in and around the pig depot at Ma Tau Kok Slaughterhouse and accommodation is therefore available for about 3,500 pigs or roughly 3 days' supply at the present rate of kill.
The Ma Tau Kok area is now densely built up and there is little possibility of enlarging the present pig depot.”
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:
"Will the Commissioner for Resettlement please state whether he has been requested to provide accommodation for any of the victims of the recent disastrous fire in Lai Chi Kok Road? If so, will he please state what reply has been given and what action is being considered or will be taken? If not, would he be prepared to consider any request for accommodation?”
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-
"This question concerns the victims of the tenement fire, which occurred on 15th May, 1961, at Nos. 305, 307 and 309, Lai Chi Kok Road, Kowloon.
Three tenement houses were involved in the fire but the Building Authority has now given permission for 2 of the 3 houses to be reoccupied and it is possible that permission will later be given for reoccupation of the third subject to reinstatement of floors, staircases, etc. These buildings are of relatively recent construction (about 1941 in the case of No. 305 and 1948 in the case of Nos. 307 and 309) and therefore better designed to withstand the effects of a fire.
As the residents have been only temporarily deprived of accommodation the Department has not been brought into the picture except as regards one rooftop squatter family which was resited at Cheung Sha Wan on 27th May, in accordance with standard departmental practice. It is understood that this family has also received assistance from the Social Welfare Department."
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:
"Will the Chairman please state whether he has received any request from the Fire Brigade for assistance from Urban Services inspectors and other staff to look out for and report to the Fire Brigade any apparent case of unauthorized storing of dangerous or inflammable materials during the course of their normal duties? In view of the recent disastrous fire in Lai Chi Kok Road, will the Chairman give an assurance that the fullest co-operation will be given the Fire Brigade in this respect?"
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
"At an inter-departmental meeting held in March this year, it was proposed that departments which employ inspecting staff should assist the Director of Fire Services by supplying reports on premises which appear to present fire hazards."
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