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on an island, we will have to start new ferry services for them. It would be much shorter, much quicker, and much easier to develop new ferry services across from Shau Kei Wan and North Point over to the north side of the harbour to Yau Tong and similar areas. So I do not think it is a matter of roads so much as developing new ferry services across the harbour.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, if I may answer that point. I do not see how that would help the Tsz Wan Shan people.
MR. A. de O. SALES:-Mr. Chairman, may I just mention before I speak that you give me the impression of being overly indulgent in the application of Standing Orders when you have to apply them to your Official Colleague, and I do hope, Sir, that the same indulgence will be extended to the Appointed Members whenever they have to rise and take the floor. Mr. Chairman, there are various points at issue over this matter of finding new sites for housing estates. The Working Party considered the matter at great length. We were assured at that time that at least up to 1970, there would be sites available in the mainland not only for housing estate sites as such, but for industry and other services, namely, schools, clinics, and so on. In consultation with my Appointed colleagues, Mr. Chairman, I would like to move an amendment to the motion which has been put forward by Mrs. ELLIOTT and I do trust that after this amendment has been seconded, in fact, if Mrs. ELLIOTT is agreeable, this might be accepted as a substitute motion. With your permission, I shall read it. May I, Sir, put on my spectacles to avoid any mistake occurring again? (Laughter). In reference to the fifth paragraph on page 349.
That this Council urge Government to continue investigating the possibility of utilizing Hong Kong Island and the nearby islands for the resettlement of Hong Kong squatters as an alternative to their resettlement in the outlying areas of Kowloon provided that they are served by all the services now available in such housing estates.
Mr. Chairman, may I add that there is a body of opinion among the Appointed Members that perhaps not sufficient investigation has been carried out as to the possibilities of housing the squatters who work on Hong Kong Island in other areas of Hong Kong however far away they may be. Evidently they must be better located from their points of employment than they can possibly be in distant corners of the New Territories. So I put forward this amendment, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps if Mrs. ELLIOTT is agreeable, it may be accepted as a substitute motion. If you would like me to do so, I will read it again—
That this Council urge Government to continue investigating the possibility of utilizing Hong Kong Island and the nearby islands for the resettlement of Hong Kong squatters as an alternative to their resettlement in the outlying areas of
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Kowloon provided that such locations have all the services now available in other housing estates.
MR. WATSON:-Mr. Chairman, I beg to second that motion.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-I am very happy to add Hong Kong Island to the original motion.
MR. SALES:-Would Mrs. ELLIOTT be prepared to accept this as a substitute motion? Then we can put it to the vote.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, I am very happy to do so. I was told that there were no sites in Hong Kong, and I am glad therefore to accept the substitute motion,
MR. BERNACCHI:-Mr. Chairman, I think I need to be consulted as seconder, and I follow Mrs. ELLIOTT's lead in the matter.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-Mr. Chairman, may I make a point. It is a small point, in fact, arising out of the discussions this afternoon from which it may seem that we are resettling people from Hong Kong Island to Tsz Wan Shan Estate. I do not think that that is so.
The Estates in Kowloon in which we have resettled a number of squatters, where it has not been possible to put them in Chai Wan and Tin Wan, are Sau Mau Ping and Yau Tong. Yau Tong has a small ferry service and Sau Mau Ping is very close to Kwun Tong Estate where there is quite a reasonable ferry service from the Kwun Tong public piers to the Island.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, is it not true that the squatters at Morrison Hill are being resettled at Tsz Wan Shan?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-That may be one small case, but the Shau Kei Wan ones, about which there has been some reference, were resettled at Yau Tong and Sau Mau Ping.
MR. BERNACCHI:-On a point of order, I have received personally many letters from squatters on Hong Kong Island who were directed to move to Tsz Wan Shan.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I agree that there were applications from the squatters at Morrison Hill.
CHAIRMAN:-The matter has, I think, been sufficiently clarified.
The substitute motion proposed by MR. SALES and seconded by MR. WATSON is before Council.
The question was put.
The motion was carried unanimously.
(AT this point MR. MARDEN left the meeting)
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