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No less than six Unofficial Members have commented on hawker matters in this Debate. Mr. Wilfred WONG once again drew attention to the unsatisfactory condition of certain streets. In those to which he referred by name, much was achieved last winter by intensive cleansing operations and by pressing the hawkers to discard surplus bric-a-brac and to reduce over-sized stalls to conform with the Council's by-laws. Unfortunately a deterioration set in towards the end of the summer, considerably aggravated by typhoons and by staff and transport difficulties. Action is now in hand to reverse this deterioration and I trust that early in the new year Mr. WONG will find that conditions have improved.
Mr. MARDEN referred to the problem of unlicensed food-for-man hawkers, especially in industrial districts and in new development areas not adequately served by restaurants or cooked food stalls. Since it is the Council's firm policy not to license any new cooked food stalls, and since unlicensed food hawkers cannot be licensed, I agree with him that everything possible should be done to ensure that adequate canteen or other catering facilities are provided for factory workers. In the meantime rigorous action must continue to be taken against unlicensed food hawkers. The condition of many licensed cooked food stalls still leaves much to be desired but some improvement should result from the Select Committee's recent decision to make the annual renewal of licences contingent upon the licensees repainting and repairing their stalls.
Five Members who spoke on hawkers referred to the growing number of pedlar hawkers, both licensed and unlicensed, and commented on the pros and cons of action to limit or reduce their numbers, particularly by encouraging the younger and more able-bodied hawkers to seek regular employment in industry.
In my view it would certainly be desirable to limit the number of pedlar licences, since the growth in pedestrian and vehicular traffic on our roads—which after all are designed for purposes of transit and movement—means that there is relatively less and less space on them available for pedlar hawkers. Ideally, licences should not be issued indiscriminately to able-bodied people who have other means of support. It is also desirable that we should take steps now to encourage the younger generation to enter more stable occupations with better prospects, rather than embarking on a life of hawking, for it is very doubtful whether in the years ahead hawking will provide a satisfactory and sure livelihood for more than a small proportion of our population.
There are several possible ways of limiting the number of pedlar hawkers: one is the mounting of a publicity campaign aimed at informing existing and potential hawkers of employment vacancies and opportunities for training, particularly in industry. A limited start has been made with the help of the new Employment Information Service and coloured posters will shortly be displayed in such places as hawker bazaars, licensing offices and Resettlement Estates. The degree of success attending any such campaign is bound to be affected by monetary and personal considerations over which this Council has no control, for those hawkers who can now earn more than the immediate returns from factory jobs open to them may not at first be attracted to industry; and there is a very understandable conservatism and wish to avoid changing a way of life—which, however, I do suggest is becoming increasingly out of date in modern Hong Kong. Another method is to reduce the extent of the areas available to hawkers, in the interests of the public moving through our streets; this is likely to lead ultimately to a reduction in numbers because of the lesser space available for them to trade in. Only very recently the Hawkers Select Committee approved a proposal that, as a first step, the main traffic routes in the urban area should generally be declared as prohibited to all hawking. These prohibited streets, which are likely to be gazetted early in the new year, do not in fact contain more than a few hawkers at the present time. The next stage would be to divide other streets into those permitted or prohibited for hawking, which should be a real advance towards a more orderly situation on the ground. A third method of restricting or reducing the number of pedlar hawkers is by placing limitations on the categories of people eligible for pedlar licences. There may, for instance, be a case for restricting the issue of pedlar licences to persons over the age of 40.
This whole question will clearly need to be examined at great length by the Select Committee in the first instance and the only further point I would like to make at this stage is that we should, as far as we can, safeguard the position of existing licensed pedlar hawkers, where they are known to rely on hawking for their livelihood.
With your permission, Sir, I should like now to make a few remarks on other matters, outside the scope of the Council, which have been raised by Members in this Debate. In speaking about the White Paper on Social Welfare Policy, Mrs. LI Shu-pui said that in theory it touches on many branches of social welfare but unfortunately narrows down to the very minimum services, mostly relief, that Government offers to undertake in order to be realistic. With great respect to Mrs. Li, whose active concern and participation in various forms of community social service are well known, I feel that I must dissent from this picture of the White Paper. For instance, in paragraph 10 of the Paper, five examples are given of essential services which "Government should continue to provide and improve" in collaboration with voluntary welfare agencies; these are the care and protection of neglected and abandoned children; guardianship, probation and detention in approved schools, etc. on the orders of Court; youth services; and rehabilitation in
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