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market is occupied, but if a section of Jardine's Crescent is cleared for the purpose of a school, I am quite sure that the vegetable hawkers there would be willing to avail themselves of the pitches reserved for them on the first floor. This is again a matter of policy becoming practice and of the determination to put policy into practice.
Imagine what would happen to conditions in the Causeway Bay area and what would happen to the traffic known as the "Roxy Roundabout" if Tang Lung Chau Market had not been built. The "Roxy Roundabout" complex was conceived in 1960 when I was representing this Council on the Traffic Advisory Committee. It took three years to implement the plan to make the district better all round. There was at that time indeed, someone advocating to abandon the Tang Lung Chau Market in favour of the meat shops. If that policy had been carried out, we would find the Causeway Bay area retrogressing to the 19th century. Government is a dynamic process to be likened to rowing a boat upstream. If it does not move forward it goes backward.
With regard to the market programme in general, I am firmly of the opinion that there should be a market where one is lacking in a particular district. The market has not only proved to be the most economic institution for the sale of food to the public at low cost, and the food in the market is not only cheaper but also has more variety than in the stores. To provide shelter for the housewife, from the boiling sun of the hot summer days and the muddy streets of Hong Kong's drizzle and showers, in her daily chores of marketing, is definitely an urban amenity well within the scope of the Urban Council.
Mr. Chairman, have you ever talked with the wives or mothers of your workers or gangers? If you do, you will find their views on marketing most interesting and revealing. Some would go even further as to the metaphysical effect of a good market. A happy and contented housewife means harmony in the house and that would ease other social problems.
In the case of the proposed North Point Market which is the only district without a market, it could absorb all the vegetable pedlar hawkers in Healthy Street East. It would make Healthy Street really clean and available for motor and pedestrian traffic. With more than fifteen thousand people living in the Healthy Village and the multi-storeyed apartments nearby, the street is needed as a thoroughfare.
In the case of markets the Department is dragging its feet. In fact it has done more than that. It has ignored the views of the Unofficial Members. It has declared through the Assistant Director (Amenities & General) that it is against a market in North Point. It has made a decision against the market because of the meat shops. There is much to be desired about the meat shops as to the cleanliness of their premises and the quality of the foodstuffs from the viewpoint of public health. However, they need entertain no fear about their existence because they will get a legitimate share of business. To cite Wan Chai as an example. In spite of its having three markets—the Wan Chai Market, the Tang Lung Chau Market and the Lockhart Road Market—there are still a lot of meat shops flourishing.
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In so doing, the Department has gone against the provisions of the Town Planning Board and the expressions of the Markets Select Committee. It has attached far too much weight to the interests of the meat shops. It has disregarded the interest and convenience of the housewife.
On the matter of meat shops it is invariably the case that when meat shops are there, the vegetable pedlars congregate. This turns the street virtually into a market. To cite a few examples, if one visits Chun Yeung Street, Marble Road, Healthy Street East and Bowrington Road, one will find the streets congested with hawkers, dirty with refuse and generally making the life of the residents miserable. This state of affairs is not in the best interest out of public health, nor can it be reconciled with any theory of social economy such as private enterprise. What we have forgotten are the residents of the streets of these "illegal markets." They are unhappy, but they are meek. I think this Council has on record the file of a lady graduate of the University of Hong Kong. The noisy conditions and stench drove her to hysteria. Many housewives have stated that in going to these streets for marketing they are often splashed with mud by passing cars when they shop for vegetables and, as you know, the housewife would like to shop from one stall to another, to look over and compare the various types of vegetables. Those who would deprive a whole district of a market are probably persons who sit loftily in their offices and are out of touch with the people. (Laughter). There is also a view that the market is expensive. A simple market is not expensive, and in fact the funds for the North Point Market have already been provided. Furthermore, a market pays for itself from the rentals accrued from its many stalls.
The Department has lost its status of neutrality by taking a stand on a proposal before a vote is taken. Members' views and their experience in assessing the needs of the community must be taken into account and therefore the issue must now be presented to the Council as a whole.
In due course I intend to propose to this Council, a motion that the Council proceed with the planning of the market programme in general according to the needs of each district and with the North Point Market in particular, because that district has none whatsoever. The market which more than half of the Members have considered favourably is a two-storeyed market with a playground on the roof, and the
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