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of a golf club and, how many acres of land each of these clubs possesses in Shek-O, Deep Water Bay, or Fanling? With amenity facilities so limited, privileges for a few should be regarded as things of the past, and I would like to repeat that we must have authority to eradicate selfish and indifferent attitudes shown by some of the clubs and associations who, let it be remembered, are holding Crown lands on permit.
Nature has not been ungenerous to us in beautiful beaches, scenic spots, excursion grounds, etc. These beauties of Nature make no distinction between rich and poor—they are there for all to enjoy. It is we who have been guilty of neglect. Some of the world's most beautiful beaches in our off-shore islands, like Silver Mine Bay, Picnic Bay, Clear Water Bay, and so on are, for the most part today, paradises for only those who own pleasure launches, but for the general public they remain the longed-for Utopias; for the simple reason that transportations to these spots are not at popular prices and are far from being sufficient. Compare this to pre-war days when the public could get to their favourite swimming resort—which was then the seashore along "Seven Sisters" in North Point—on a 3-cent fare by tram. Gone indeed are all our seven charming Sisters, and gone indeed are amenities at such low costs!
May I beg, and keep on begging, our public transport companies to consider sympathetically operating special services which will permit our hard-working population and their equally hard-working children to enjoy week-ends and holidays in scenic country spots or in beaches away from town and in off-shore islands. I hope they will go even further and offer concession rates for these routes. May I suggest that the Public Transport Advisory Committee will help us solve this problem.
One can enumerate endlessly different varieties of amenities which this colony lacks, but what I particularly wish to appeal for today is the one that has been mentioned by Mr. Li Yiu-bor: an indoor stadium. I offer no apology for going further into this subject—a motion for such a scheme was laid and adopted by the Urban Council as far back as December, 1958. But as usual, the project was conveniently shelved and conveniently forgotten.
An Indoor Stadium to hold 5,000 or more; designed—like the one in Earl's Court, London, or like the Madison Square of New York,—for multiple purposes, has indeed much to offer. It will help to promote games like basket-ball, volley-ball, badminton, boxing, tennis, etc.; it will enable exhibition matches of all kinds by world-renowned players and provide facilities for first-class entertainments like ice-skating, circuses, variety shows, etc. Our local organizations, like the Tung Wah Hospital and the Kaifong Associations, can also make use of it for charity performances.
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Without proper facilities Hong Kong keeps on missing the boat, when it comes to first-class entertainments and 1st-class exhibition games.
At present, when some interested parties wish to stage performances of this kind, they will either use one of the two minute indoor stadia or chase our children off their playgrounds and erect a temporary structure there. Such an arrangement obviously can never be attractive to first-class performers. For apart from inadequate facilities and equipment, such temporary structures are flimsy and yet costly and they allow for only limited accommodation making it out of question for sponsors to fix admission prices at popular rate. They do not afford adequate shelter against inclement weather, safety factors leave much to be desired; the risk of fire is great; provisions for sanitary requirements often inadequate. Only a good-size indoor stadium will provide the right answer to all these problems.
But for the Concert Hall in the City Hall, we would have missed opportunities we had of listening to first-class music given by Philharmonic Orchestras from London, Tokyo, and Poland. Thanks again to our big stadia, football has gained tremendous popularity. On the other hand, we have seen basket-ball lose its former status of being the most popular game in Hong Kong owing, undoubtedly, to the lack of good-sized stadia. All these reflect on the importance of proper facility.
For those who fear that a big indoor stadium may turn out to be a white elephant, may I remind them that the same fear was expressed of the City Hall when it was still under contemplation—and how false these prophets, so-called, turned out to be. I have heard it mentioned that the Honourable Financial Secretary has a remarkable crystal ball in which he can look into the past, present and future. In considering this project, I am sure he is going to look into his crystal ball again. May I hope that his crystal ball this time will show him that the projected stadium is a sound financial position? I am sure, at least, it must show him thousands and thousands of happy, laughing, smiling faces in a stadium when it shall have been erected in the future.
With these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I am glad to support the motion.
DR. P. F. Woo:—Mr. Chairman, I greatly welcome the Council's recommendation that there be a gradual enlargement of the Council's scope and that it be represented in various other public bodies. On many occasions many Elected Members, including myself, had advocated this proposal. Some Members have already touched on this subject just now, and in the course of our debate to-day I hope more Members would express their views. The membership of this Council was first enlarged in 1953 and was further expanded in 1956, and under its management the Urban Services Department with its capable staff has become one of the largest and most efficient Departments in the
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