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In conclusion, therefore I would say as a Representative and Chairman of the Reform Club that of course, in advocating our support for this Report which deals with local Government, we and the Reform Club insist that constitutional reform on a local government level is not sufficient and that to give the citizens of Hong Kong a real sense of belonging to Hong Kong, they must have also a partially elected Legislative Council. Hong Kong now for the first time in its history is composed of the majority of persons born here. It is no longer merely a place to come to and go from, it is the home and domicile of the majority, of the great majority, of the people who live here. If Hong Kong is to continue, then, this Great People, mainly of Chinese race, must be given a sense of belonging, a sense that they have a say in their own future.
For these reasons Mr. Chairman, I support and second this Motion.
COMMISSIONER for RESETTLEMENT:- Mr. Chairman, the report of the Ad Hoc Committee which we are considering today contains far-reaching proposals affecting the future of the Colony and this Council. It represents, as I see it, a consensus of the views of those members who sat on the Ad Hoc Committee, and attempts to crystallize the aspirations of a number of unofficial members as frequently expressed in debate and at question time during recent years. I do not suppose, however, that its authors would regard it as a cut-and-dried plan, ready for immediate implementation. Rather it seems likely to be the opening remarks of a dialogue which will continue for many months. To use a metaphor which is perhaps more appropriate to my colleague the Director of Public Works, it is a preliminary sketch plan, or even a layout plan, which will require careful analysis and modification before we even begin to prepare detailed working drawings, and the latter will themselves be subject to change and improvement before they are finalized, some items being cancelled, others modified, and perhaps yet other new refinements added. Until these working drawings are practically complete, I suggest that it would be rash to start the erection of the new building. To carry the metaphor further, what this report seems to envisage is not just a single building, but a complex estate.
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By an expansion of membership, they may have a number of new colleagues who lack experience even of the present functions of the Urban Council.
It is evident, too, that if more councils are created, the departments of Government which are already associated with the Urban Council will require more staff and will need to adjust their procedures in order to meet new commitments. Similarly, those departments whose functions come, for the first time, within the orbit of the new councils, will also need more staff and time in which to build up the procedures which at present they do not require.
All these considerations point inevitably to the need for a gradual expansion of the functions of local Government, pre-arranged in advance in accordance with a time-table maybe, but nevertheless with the programme sufficiently flexible to allow for adjustment in the light of experience, lest the machinery of administration grind to a halt from attempting to tackle too much at one time. I see no overt recognition of this need in the report, but feel sure that it was very much in the minds of its authors, and will be glad to hear some confirmation of this this afternoon.
Assuming, as I do, that a great deal of discussion lies ahead before any final plan is approved here or elsewhere, it would be out of place, even if time permitted, to offer detailed comments on specific recommendations in the report. I would, however, like to mention two aspects which particularly concern my department, making it clear at once that these are purely my personal comments and do not represent an official or Government view.
The first point is that there is such a thing as over-administration. The replacement of one Urban Council by no less than four similar bodies, with provision for yet others as new towns expand, and with one of them having supervisory and co-ordinating powers over the rest, strikes me as a terribly cumbersome way of giving the population more say in the running of the internal affairs of this small territory. The opportunities it will offer for bureaucratic inefficiency and muddle, for friction between rival councils and their respective committees, and for the operation of Parkinson's law in the departments working with and for so many Councils, are frightening. There is a serious danger that so much time will be spent in consulting councils and committees that nothing will ever be done.
My second comment is in relation to housing, and its place in the framework outlined in the report. It appears from paragraph 19 that the Ad Hoc Committee would make housing a function of the Greater Hong Kong Council, with the day-to-day running of Resettlement,