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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
market projects which simply must be achieved promptly. The lengthy and constructive Hawkers Report prepared by the Hawkers Select Committee relays many schemes to improve the hawkers situation, but few schemes can be put into operation as long as market reconstruction is hanging fire.
The same remarks would equally apply to the advantageous use of the balance of our Block Vote for amenities. Here we have available funds to the extent of more than H.K.$100,000.00. Who is to be blamed for not having time to draw up our plans? It is, Mr. Chairman, only with a closer and better co-ordination between the Council and the various Governmental Departments that we would be in a position to complete our projects and fulfil our responsibilities in a speedier and more efficient manner.
Now, I come to the question of enforcement of our law and regulations. More often than once, we have been too lenient in our decisions apparently without justification. It is because of leniency that the unhygienic conditions of some of the illegally run one-bay restaurants have been tolerated for years until last week when decisive action has been taken to improve the situation through the Resettlement Areas and Estates Select Committee. It is because of leniency that certain occulting neon signs are illegally installed in the city. I am in favour of a speedy formation of regulations permitting the installation of blinking neon signs with certain limitations. There is a strong demand commercially for this better advertisement value and it will add to the beauty and activity of "Hong Kong by Night". (Laughter) It is also because of leniency that I begin to doubt if the service of a delegated member in the various select committees is necessary, unless his or her decision is taken in an unbiased light separating fairness from emotional toleration.
All told, we must be alert to the possibility that the Urban Services Department may be bewildered in the smooth handling of its affairs with a state of toleration standing in between each matter. Suffice it to mention, a deliberate violator of the law and regulations is doing injustice to, and at the expense of the general public, which is the foremost factor in our deliberations.
Finally, I would like to add a few words of praise to our capable and efficient Urban Council Secretariat. They have performed their duties exceedingly well during the past year. May I further suggest that perhaps arrangements should be made with the Secretary to give a brief verbal report, at the outset of each meeting of select committees, of what has taken place and what progress has been made on matters that were discussed at the previous meeting. This procedure will give Members a better insight into the state of affairs on any particular matter. Such a procedure is not new and has in fact been successfully done by the Secretary of the Housing Authority for some time, at the suggestion of my Senior Colleague, Mr. Sonny Sales.
With these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I have great pleasure in supporting the motion. (Applause).
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
DR. A. M. S. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, it is not without considerable disappointment and a feeling of frustration that I look around this table to-day. I had so much looked forward to being able to welcome an appointed lady member to this Council in place of our good friend Mr. Y. K. KAN. Please do not mistake me--I am pleased to see Mr. K. S. Lo here and I hope he will enjoy the work of this Council and I am sure he will contribute a great deal to our efforts.
But a motion was moved and was passed by this Council suggesting the appointment of a lady at this time. I find it hard to believe that His Excellency and his advisers have been unable to find a lady, in all this enormous community of ours, who is not only suitable but also willing to accept an appointment to this Council-indeed in a matter of minutes I could give a list of at least 10 suitable persons. I feel that not only have the Council's wishes once more been ignored and another useless motion has gone to join the ranks of the many others which have been passed and not been implemented, but also the women of Hong Kong must feel slighted and insulted at the suggestion that not one of them is regarded as having sufficient ability to sit on this most junior Council. This does not look well for any of the other ventures that the Hong Kong women are fighting for so valiantly-especially the married women doctors who so rightly are pressing their case for equal pay for equal jobs. This was granted to their unmarried colleagues only because the British Medical Women's Association advised none of its members to apply for jobs in Hong Kong because of the inequality of remuneration. I wish the married women doctors would boycott the jobs too (Laughter) so that they would have every chance of success in their bid for equal pay. I hope my remarks regarding our own lack of women members on this Council will be noted and that if there were any cold feet with regard to making an appointment this year that the ladies will rush around with hot water bottles in order to prevent a recurrence next year.
The maintenance of good environmental hygiene is one of the main functions of this Council. These two words summarise a vast amount of work-in scavenging, conservancy, rubbish collection, street washing, supervising the cleanliness of markets and food and food premises. Also the control of pests such as rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes and flies. It is particularly the latter about which I wish to say a few words. Flies this year throughout the urban area are worse than I have ever seen them in all the fourteen years I have lived in Hong Kong, and for
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