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colleagues in his Department are also in full agreement, about the importance of health education in this crowded community. I am not, however, able to agree that my department ought to have intervened in the Health Education Exhibition recently held by some of the Kaifong Welfare organizations. The position here is that neither my department nor, I hope, any department of Government, brings any pressure to bear upon lawful societies engaging in lawful activities. We do not "sponsor" exhibitions of the kind to which Dr. Woo referred. We give whatever help we can to the Associations which organize such exhibitions, either in this or in any other context, and I do not think we should go any further than that.
I turn now, Sir, to Mr. R. H. LOBO's point about the charges that are made in private cemeteries, and I should first explain, Mr. Chairman, that with your agreement I want to try briefly to cover the whole of this field although, as Members are aware, only certain aspects of the matter come within the scope of my own departmental responsibilities.
A survey of all private cemeteries was carried out in the urban area and in the New Territories earlier this year for the purpose of establishing, amongst other things, the costs of burial. There are a total of 25 private cemeteries in this Colony. These are held under deeds of appropriation at nominal rentals. The use of the land is restricted to that of a cemetery for the community or religious group concerned. The deeds do not lay down the fees that may be charged for grave plots: that is to say, the Government does not control the fees. But nevertheless, fixed scales of fees are established. In the four larger groups of cemeteries, namely the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries, the Christian Chinese Cemeteries, the Roman Catholic Cemeteries and the Buddhist Cemetery, the fee for a permanent plot for a grave of normal size ranges from about $1,200 to about $1,500. The survey did not reveal any evidence of the fees being excessively high in relation to the cost of developing the cemeteries. The relatively high cost of constructing and maintaining cemeteries is due largely to the nature of the terrain, which is usually steep and difficult to form. For example, it appears that in the case of the Chinese Permanent Cemetery at Cape Collinson, the construction cost per plot amounts to nearly $1,300, and maintenance costs are also high.
I am advised that the grave plots in the smaller private cemeteries are mainly free or obtainable at very low prices.
In the Roman Catholic and Christian Chinese Groups of cemeteries, there are exhumation sections in which human remains are exhumed after 5 to 7 years of burial and re-interred in the urn section or deposited in the ossaria provided in the same cemeteries. The charges for plots in these exhumation sections are considerably lower than the charges for permanent sites.
I think I need not here recite the very low fees charged in the public cemeteries and crematoria managed by this Council. Free service for transportation of coffins to Wo Hop Shek Cemetery is, furthermore, provided, as members are aware, under arrangements made by the Urban Services Department.
It has been suggested that this Council should itself manage the permanent cemeteries, but if this were to be done on an economic basis, the cost to the public of grave plots would not, I am afraid, be much less than that in the private cemeteries when administrative and maintenance costs are taken into account. If there were to be any substantial reduction in the fees (and I believe that this could only be achieved by additional subventions from public funds) the demand for permanent plots would certainly increase rapidly, and it seems to me that the results might well run counter to this Council's long term policy of encouraging cremation.
My Honourable friend, Mr. Wilfred WONG, raised a point about the discharging of fireworks. I would personally be very willing to discuss with the financial authorities the question whether there should be an increase in the charges for discharging formal strings of fire-crackers on ceremonial occasions. I do not suppose there would be any reluctance on the part of the Government to make such an increase provided we were all satisfied that such a move would be generally welcome to the public at large. (Laughter). Before putting forward such proposals, however, I would first wish to sound out public opinion as far as I can through such channels as are available to us. The potential revenue is not really significant, and whilst I have already dealt briefly with the problem which Mr. LOBO described as the high cost of dying I do not think any of us would be too anxious or ready to impose a substantial increase upon, for example, the high cost of getting married. However, I hope that perhaps the published accounts of this Annual Debate may give rise to public comment and if it does so, I would certainly undertake to pay most careful attention to the contents of such comments.
Mr. CHEUNG Wing-in and other members spoke about the problems connected with the management of multi-storey buildings. I and my colleagues in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs were gratified by the references made to the assistance we have been able to give to groups of residents in these multi-storey buildings seeking to form Residents' Associations. I gladly give the assurance that within the limits of our resources we shall certainly continue to give all the help we can in this respect. I do however also agree, and the Government agrees too, that this assistance towards the formation of voluntary associations is not in itself enough, and that some form of legislation is needed. Action to this end has already been in hand for some considerable time, and it is the Government's firm intention to give some form of legal frame-
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