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whole of the lower wage earners group in Government service-the Medical and Health Department as well as the Urban Services Department, the Resettlement Department and all lower wage earning groups in Government service. I support the motion, but I think that in supporting it this Council must appreciate that to raise the salaries of one class of lower wage earners is not possible and that it must be a general raising of the wages of these groups of persons.
MR. A. de O. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, you will recall that for months on end my colleagues and I have drawn your attention to the fast deteriorating condition of the roads in the urban areas. Regardless of the cause, no Urban Councillor can fail to be very seriously concerned about the present state of our roads. Mr. Chairman, if your attention has been drawn by so many Urban Councillors to this matter and the condition as it is has come about, it is reasonable for the Urban Councillors to conclude that Government has taken no heed of the representations we have made. It is also logical that we should conclude that this lethargy on the part of the Civil Service is testimony of the lack of energy which is so evident when matters concerning the lower paid workers are up for consideration. Mr. Chairman, I do not wish to dwell on the cause--whether we have a shortage of staff or the lack of adequate and up-to-date equipment to carry out the cleansing operations. As I said earlier, regardless of the cause, this Council wants Government to take urgent action. If heads must roll, let them roll, because we cannot put up with any more dilly-dallying when the well-being of the people in the urban areas is at stake. The Urban Council should not only pass this motion but the Urban Council should, I think, demand energetic action from Government and not just another symbolic postcard to say that the matter is receiving attention. (Laughter).
MR. K. S. LO:-Mr. Chairman, my colleagues have spoken in support of the first part and the last part of the motion, so it leaves me to say just a few words on the middle part. I refer to the part which states that labourers are not available because of the low wages offered. According to the figures mentioned by Mr. CHEONG-LEEN and Dr. Woo, the salary for a cleansing labourer starts at $140 a month and finishes, after nine years, at $229 a month. I am afraid that this wage scale is out-dated and unrealistic, and it would be impossible to attract any self-respecting workman to work for that sort of wage. To-day, an ordinary woman labourer gets no less than $10 a day, so it is absolutely ridiculous to expect any workman to work for less than $4 or $5 a day, and for that same reason, this low salary can only attract the least efficient labourers. As one goes around the street one can see it is only those workers who idle the time away or who cannot get better jobs elsewhere, that will accept work in the Urban Services Department. So I feel that in order to attract better and more efficient labourers, Government cannot get away with not revising the wages and not bringing them up-to-date.
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labourers, Government cannot get away with not revising the wages and not bringing them up-to-date.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, in view of the fact that so many Members have spoken
(At this point the CHAIRMAN rose)
MR. SALES: -On a point of order, the Chairman has risen.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, are you going to speak?
CHAIRMAN:-I intend to, Sir. (Laughter).
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-I beg your pardon. I was under the impression that you were going to waive your right of speaking. (Laughter).
MR. SALES: -MR. CHEONG-LEEN is trying to muzzle the Chairman. (Laughter).
CHAIRMAN: Sir, if I am having difficulty in rising, you will understand that I am staggering under the fierce barrage of opinions expressed in this Council. (Laughter).
I wish to start by making some comments on the points raised by Mr. CHEONG-LEEN. I cannot, and I do not, pretend that the cleansing position is satisfactory. We have been talking about it in this Council and in its Select Committees for some months. I would only like to say that the strongest exertions are being made by the Urban Services Department in this matter of adequate and proper collection of rubbish, in a situation which, Members are aware, has been aggravated by the incidence of a quite unusual number of typhoons this year.
Mr. CHEONG-LEEN referred to the position in Yu Chau Street. There he was talking about an established refuse collection stop at No. 245 Un Chau Street, directly in front of a building site where construction is in progress. This stop is used for both refuse and baskets and is normally scheduled for twice daily collection of refuse and once daily collection of junk. I am assured that refuse has not remained there since the recent typhoons, but there have been delays in collections due partly to transport problems. For example, from 21st to 31st October, the normal vehicle on this route was out of service for repair and could only be replaced by a vehicle with two-thirds of its capacity. On 28th October this vehicle itself broke down. Since 18th October, a daily average of three routes in Kowloon have not been cleared during the day as no vehicles were available until the evening but clearance was carried out then. The exceptional rate of increase in refuse in recent months has aggravated our difficulties. In Hong Kong the number of barge loads carried has risen from six to
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