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worked well, promoted good comradeship, and most important, inspired trust. It has led to parity of responsibility and performance, though not perhaps of attendance at some select committee meetings as Mr. BERNACCHI has pointed out. If this co-operation is to continue we, the Appointed Members, must insist that any representation for increases in the unofficial membership of this Council be done on the agreed basis of equality.
To-day, I am going to restrict myself to three main topics: City Hall, Housing and Traffic.
City Hall. My interest in the City Hall goes back to 1947, when I first petitioned Government to fulfil its pledge to replace the old City Hall. Now, sixteen years later, we find the City Hall which, after a year's use by all classes, has proved to be almost everything we hoped for. It has provided some of the elegance and sophistication that one expects in a major city, a reminder that there is a realm of mind and spirit, the development of which is one of the major aims of civilization.
But while the architects may well be proud of their efforts (and in this I know that my friend the Director of Public Works played a major role in the early stages) time has shown that a number of modifications are required, which I hope Government will consider with sympathetic minds and put into effect with quick hands. The most important is the sound-proofing of the Ballroom. It would be possible for us to use both this and the Restaurant on the floor above for different functions at the same time, if the space between the floor of the latter was extended to the walls to prevent sound travelling freely between the two rooms as it does now. I am quite sure that the added income this would bring would very soon pay for the cost of the modification.
I entirely agree with Mr. BERNACCHI that in the Museum and Art Gallery we have not made as much progress as we would have liked. The Curator and his small staff have mounted a large number and variety of art exhibits which have been seen by 500,000 people, but with limited time, staff and space at his disposal, Mr. WARNER has considered that he should concentrate on the subject for which he was trained, the Art side, and we have benefited from his expert knowledge. We have asked for more staff, in particular for an Assistant Curator, with experience in museum work, but until we get him, progress is likely to be slow.
In the field of Chinese Art we have a small collection and we are trying to fill the gaps in it, but must face the fact that we can never compete with better-endowed museums abroad.
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In view of this I have proposed that these gaps be filled with good copies which Hong Kong has in abundance. I am told that these are often excellent that they can only be distinguished by highly-trained experts. For the layman, who will make up the bulk of our visitors, we could build up a panorama of the whole field of Chinese Art at a comparatively modest outlay, and I invite the Council's views on this suggestion. This collection should be on more or less permanent display for students and tourists and the many residents who are likely to be interested.
My friend Mr. Wilfred WONG has suggested that non-members of the Council be invited to assist our committees. We adopted this suggestion two years ago, and in the Museum and Art Gallery Sub-Committee we have a very strong panel of advisers in Western and Chinese Art, Natural History, Ethnography, Archaeology, History, Geology and other subjects. We are even now holding conferences with various groups and their advice and active co-operation is being sought.
In planning and organizing the Museum, one assumption we are making is that more space will eventually be available than the single gallery we have at present. We have asked Government if the old officers' Mess in Murray Barracks, itself an historical relic, could be earmarked as the future home of the Museum and Art Galleries, but no commitment has been made. I think the time has come for Government to make clear its intentions. Does it want a proper Museum? If it does, it must realize that larger premises will be required as our collections grow. We are now asking a large number of private citizens to give their time and expert knowledge to planning, and we should be in a position to assure them that they are not wasting their time, and that eventually there will be enough space to house, in a proper manner, the exhibits they are helping us to organize.
Housing.
From the housing of ancient relics, I turn to the question of housing human beings and on this subject I find that our two new Members have stolen most of my thunder. I am sure that we were all very impressed by Mrs. ELLIOTT's views on this subject and I hope that she will press her views vigorously, particularly in the Housing Authority, where she will find that the needs of the poor appear to have been lost sight of.
The grim fact is that Government financed public housing is not even keeping pace with the natural increase in our population and therefore very little is being done to improve the average standard of housing. Government itself plans to resettle 100,000 squatters a year, and build low cost housing for 20,000 people annually. The Housing Authority's target is 15,000 a year, while that of the Housing Society...
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