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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
this to occur of all times just now when we are on the brink of a possible or even probable cholera outbreak is surely a serious reflection on our efficiency. It is no use for the Medical Department to have an all-out inoculation campaign against cholera if we are not going to have a simultaneous all-out campaign against flies which after all are the main vectors of all such diseases. I suggest that, if necessary, special extra staff should be employed by the Urban Services Department just as they have been by the Medical Department, to rid every district of the Urban areas of flies-if by no other means than by swatting-(offer a prize for every 500 fly corpses and we would soon rid the Colony of this frightful pest)--but surely we can spray everywhere and search out breeding places. I cannot sound too strong a warning about this in view of the likelihood of cholera.
We have recently been trying to bring under control all unlicensed food premises in outlying and undeveloped areas-this is particularly vital because of the tremendous danger that these places are in producing gastric intestinal diseases and especially in the spread of outbreaks of cholera or typhoid. These places are usually filthy dirty and because for the most part they cannot even begin to comply with the simplest licensing requirements, there is only one method of dealing with them and that is by closure order. Unfortunately, although the magistrate under the law is bound to impose a closure order, many of these places pay no attention to such an order and then when they are brought up before the courts once again the penalty imposed is often in the nature of a small fine only and these places then continue to be lethal and murderous in their spread of disease. It is a great pity that here in Hong Kong we have no medical coroners or medically qualified judiciary who would perhaps be more aware of the terrific danger of these unlicensed places or indeed any licensed premises which are filthy dirty and would in consequence impose sufficiently deterring sentences or fines or other punishment for what after all may be a form of manslaughter.
Our new City Hall has opened with a wonderful flourish with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, but we had some public criticism of the method of ticket selling and booking. This of course was in the hands of the orchestra agent here and no blame can be levied on the Council in any respect, for much of the muddle and mistakes which were quite rightly the subject of much criticism. I think that we should seriously consider imposing a condition that tickets for City Hall concerts, theatre or cinema shows should be available only from the City Hall and that there should be several well-positioned Booking Offices in the lobby where proper seat plans are on display and where tickets may be bought at once, not by putting names down and not without knowing which seats have been purchased and at what price. By all means let the agents, whoever they may be, use these booking offices but strictly according to ethical rules and if they should want to restrict the number of seats which any one person can purchase for a popular function by all means let this take place, but let the agents remember that public money was used to build the City Hall and that therefore members of the public have a right to demand equal rights and fair treatment in the purchase of tickets for any show or concert held there. The facilities in the Hall are superb but these are facilities offered to themselves, by the public, and not offered by the agents for shows put on there and not by the caterers who have been given the contract for the Restaurant. As regards the latter it is imperative that the highest standard of service and food should be the rule and not the exception, otherwise the public has the right to demand something better. All large charities should be able to hold their functions in the City Hall at reasonable charges. Otherwise they may well boycott the Hall and it may become unpopular in consequence of poor service and poor quality meals. We must ensure that this does not occur.
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For the past year I have, as your representative, put in many laborious hours at meetings of the Traffic Advisory Committee. I have raised many points which concern this Council under the heading of "Amenities." Recently, road repairing has been one of the issues raised by me. I have criticised the enormous simultaneous number of road repair works which proceed in Kowloon in every major street rendering walking safety for pedestrians negligible and driving for motorists hazardous. The worst feature of all these repairs is the tremendous drawn-out length of time which they appear to take. I cite as only two examples out of many: Firstly, Sai Yee Street in Kowloon which has been reduced to half width for three months now and is still not nearly finished-hundreds of school children are endangering their lives in this street every day because of these repair works. My second example is Tai Po Road 5 miles, where repair work could well have proceeded day and night since nobody could be disturbed by it except the monkeys and the birds, (Laughter) but instead motorists have had to put up with excruciating delays and disruption to traffic flow for more than a month now. Surely our roads are part of our amenities and if the Road Works Branch of the Public Works Department cannot do a better job than this then some other body should become the authority for Road Works.
Parking meters in Kowloon have also been a serious bone of contention during the year. As your representative and on your briefing, I have maintained that meters should not in fairness be introduced to Kowloon until there is an alternative available to motorists in the form of a multi-storey car park. (Cries of Hear! Hear!) For the past four years we have been crying out for such a car park. I suppose that this is a short period of time when it is compared to the length of time it is still taking to produce even a working drawing of the new slaughter
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