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Services produced the original draft for the Committee to get their teeth into, Mr. WILSON the present Assistant Director whose views and remarkably fine control of the English language are to be found quite prominently in the final draft of the Report, Mr. Ross the Assistant Secretary who is particularly assigned to the work of the Hawkers Select Committee and Mr. SCOBELL the present Commandant of the Hawker Control Force who has been able to advise us on a number of matters and in particular to give his opinion as to the tasks which the Hawker Control Force are and are not able to perform.
I would end by stressing, as I stressed at the time of the Hawker Report of 1957, that the object of these proposals is not designed in any way against hawking or the hawkers and we on the Hawkers Select Committee particularly wish to see the development of a happy relationship between the housewife, the Urban Services staff including the Hawker Control Force and the hawkers themselves.
I now move this motion.
MR. WILFRED S. B. WONG:- Mr. Chairman, as the other member of the Sub-Committee, I rise to second this motion.
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, in supporting the motion under discussion, may I make the observation that if the proposals in the Report are to be successfully implemented, it is very important that Government should discontinue dragging its feet on the market reconstruction programme. As is mentioned in the Report, the expansion of the Hawker Control Force will be completely hamstrung unless Government should "see the light" and make up its mind once and for all to really speed up the market reconstruction programme.
Government's stock-in-trade answer for such long-drawn delays is shortage of staff in the Architectural Office of the Public Works Department. I consider it most unfair on the part of Government to use the Architectural Office as a "whipping boy" to delay vital projects which have been put forward by this Council. It is unfair not only to the Honourable Director of Public Works but also to this whole Council. At the snail's pace at which work is proceeding, it would perhaps be more accurate to refer to this programme in the future as Government's market non-construction programme.
Another observation concerns the question of limitation of hawker licences. This is a thorny question. Conditions have been imposed in respect of licences for cooked food stalls, general purpose and fixed pitch stalls, which in effect encourage able-bodied persons to stay away from hawking, when they might be better employed in a factory or a workshop.
On the other hand, Mr. Chairman, it has been recommended that there should be no arbitrary limit in the number of pedlar hawker licences issued. A number of proposals have been put forward which in the sum total will cause, to some degree, the number of pedlar hawkers to find its own level. However, we should not be over-optimistic in this regard, and I would suggest, Mr. Chairman, that you forward copies of this Report to the Labour Department and the Commerce and Industry Department. I think it would do no harm for an inter-departmental meeting to be held between representatives of the Urban Services Department and these two other departments to explore what steps could be taken to channel able-bodied young men and women further into industry, rather than their applying for hawker pedlar licences, or even to remain as unlicensed hawkers. One suggestion which might be considered at the time could be the expansion of the work of the Labour Department's Employment Liaison Office and the organizing of free industrial training classes in those industries which have the capacity for rapid growth.
MR. A. DE O. Sales: Mr. Chairman, without speaking with my tongue in my cheek, I would like to give due recognition to the work of the Hawkers Select Committee and the Sub-Committee, and to all those who were in some way responsible for this Supplementary Report. It is without doubt a positive statement of what measures could be taken to improve the situation. On 2nd January when the draft was considered by the Standing Committee of the Whole Council, I made two principal points which I think ought to be repeated in this meeting to-day.
The success of any endeavour on the part of this Council to contain the hawker problem and in fact to ameliorate the living conditions not only of the hawkers but also of the people in the vicinity of hawking will not be fully accomplished, unless definite steps are taken to implement these measures, and I see that any fragmentation of authority in dealing with hawkers will only undermine the position of the Urban Council. I refer in particular to the duality of control over hawkers, which has been exercised by this Council through the Urban Services Department and by the Police. An early end to that situation should be made and a positive step should be taken by Government to give this Council more money and more power to increase the Hawker Control Force.
The second point which I made on 2nd January concerned the demarcation of areas. It surprised this Council to learn that the Police, in conjunction with the Kaifongs, demarcated certain areas for hawkers without consulting the Council at all. This is not a situation which should be condoned and in fact the Council should not only be in name responsible for the hawker problem but also be given the power to carry out all the provisions which are adopted in that connexion.
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