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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Kong and Kowloon have concentrated on places where crowds gather, particularly ferry piers, bus and tram stops, and cinema exits and entrances before and after shows. This course of action, together with that taken by staff of the Cleansing Division during the normal course of their duties, has resulted in a considerably increased number of successful prosecutions recently, and such action will continue to be pursued throughout the rest of the year.
Though no special anti-spitting campaign is due to take place again this year, the Health Education Select Committee has approved one for 1967 and the usual other means of promoting health propaganda against the evils of indiscriminate spitting will continue throughout 1966.
(16) MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:—
(a) Will the Chairman of the Urban Amenities Select Committee please advise whether it is possible for the Urban Council to acquire a male panda and a female panda? (b) Can the Chairman of the Urban Amenities Select Committee seek expert information and advise this Council whether the panda can withstand the Hong Kong climate?
MR. A. de O. SALES, CHAIRMAN OF THE URBAN AMENITIES SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:-
Mr. Chairman, I think that Mr. CHEONG-LEEN is referring to the Giant Panda, which has recently featured so much in the news. This species is very strictly protected in its natural habitat in the mountains of western China, where it lives at altitudes above 5,000 feet. There are probably only a dozen or so of these animals in captivity throughout the world and I think it would be out of the question for the Urban Council to acquire even one, let alone a male and a female, for the good reason that none of the very few zoos which already has a Giant Panda would be prepared to part with it or its offspring.
As regards the second part of the question, I am advised that Giant Pandas would almost certainly be unable to stand up satisfactorily to Hong Kong's hot and humid summer.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, may I ask Mr. SALES by what other name is the Giant Panda known as? (Laughter).
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. SALES: -Sir, I will be glad to oblige Mr. CHEONG-LEEN. The Giant Panda is also known as Ailuropoda Melanoleuca. (Laughter). I may be forgiven if I decline to tell Mr. CHEONG-LEEN that it is the first declension-he would not understand what it is.
MR. MARDEN: Mr. Chairman, a supplementary. Might I ask whether any other expert advice was sought by the department on the habits and habitat of the Giant Panda?
MR. SALES: With your permission, Sir, we sought expert opinion locally and we also discovered an expert opinion from London, the Curator of Mammals, Mr. Desmond MORRISON at the London Zoo. He was reported by one of our newspapers as having said just a few days ago, "we must not count our pandas before they are hatched." (Laughter).
MR. MARDEN:-Or we must not pander to Mr. CHEONG-LEEN. (Laughter).
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, could Mr. SALES clarify whether he believes pandas are hatched and not born?
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, Mr. CHEONG-LEEN is noted in this Council for his controversial opinions on Zoology in general. The last time he was heard offering his opinion to this Council "that we should not milk dry the goose that lays the golden egg." (Laughter).
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-May I proceed further with a supplementary question, Mr. Chairman? I don't mind Mr. SALES' introducing new matter provided it helps to keep the Council lively. Having lived in West China myself for a couple of years at various altitudes (Laughter) even though I wasn't fortunate enough to meet a panda-I am sure that the weather in West China is not any worse than Hong Kong in the autumn, and assuming that the panda could live in Hong Kong during autumn, there is no reason why with modern air conditioning a panda couldn't live in our hot and humid spring and summer weather. You could even put the panda behind the Chairman of the Urban Amenities Select Committee during a Council meeting, and it would be able to live through it. (Laughter).
MR. MARDEN: Mr. Chairman, at the same time we are going slightly off the question of pandas, and in this case to form a zoo in Hong Kong, we might of course go into the question of getting perhaps a chimpanzee, then we might have the opportunity, as one of my friends did in the zoo, of seeing one of these chimps reading a book, and on looking over his shoulder saw it was Darwin's "Origin of the Species", and he was muttering "Am I my keeper's brother?" (Laughter).
CHAIRMAN:-I really think we ought to leave this fascinating subject.
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