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other people's official reports, I can't answer for their anxiety to be "ghosted", but I did rather think that my Department, let alone this Council, already produces more paper per square member than any local organization but the G.I.S. Enough is enough! I would like to think that Mr. FORSGATE isn't advocating paper pollution.
Once again, Mr. SALES has drawn a harrowing picture of the recreation, amenities and other worthwhile programmes progressing at a snail's pace "while civil servants pick their leisurely way through a maze of bureaucratic procedures". This entertaining rhetorical flourish may make good headlines, but the truth is less alarming; indeed, even Mr. SALES has to admit that "much has been achieved". And so it has. Only five years ago in the urban areas, there were under 500 acres of developed public open space in 1965; now there are well over 800. There were well under 200 public gardens then; now nearly 300. In 1965 there were about 50 to 60 children's playgrounds; now there are four times as many: and also 44 grass games pitches as against less than half that number. In addition, we now have about 40 hard-surfaced mini-soccer pitches and considerably more than 200 basket-ball or volleyball courts, against respectively 30 and a hundred only five years ago. However, I cannot but agree with him when he says that much more needs to be done at an enhanced pace.
In the field of swimming, progress has inevitably been slower. "Inevitably" not because building contractors go bankrupt, but because it is virtually impossible to find suitable new beaches in the urban areas, and because swimming pools cost a great deal more, and take much longer to build, than playgrounds. But even here, we are now on the threshold of a great expansion in our swimming pool capacity. Thanks to the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, Morse Park pool will be opened the day after tomorrow, and Lei Cheng Uk and Kwun Tong should follow early next year. The possibility of speeding up work on these two long-delayed pools has indeed been looked into, but this could only have been done at exorbitant cost, even if it were possible to find the labourers. Work will soon start at Morrison Hill and Kennedy Town, while two other urban pools are in the Public Works Programme. As Mr. FORSGATE knows, the swimming pool programme is now no longer as immediately ambitious as we had hoped, but we shall continue our efforts to get new pools into the Public Works Programme as rapidly as possible.
As Mr. SALES is aware, in the short time since the beginning of this debate, the construction of a stadium at Ho Man Tin, with an estimated cost of $14 million, has been approved and included in Category B of the Public Works Programme. This apart from many other items now under consideration, in the pipeline or actually under construction. The record is not then, I would suggest, what one might expect of a bureaucracy strangled in its own red tape! we would all like more, and quickly; but the same applies to every Government department which has items in the Public Works Programme. Resources are not unlimited, and it is, I'm afraid, unrealistic to expect the formulation of every need to be followed by instant implementation. The Kai Tak East games hall has been mentioned by Mr. SALES. Work on the playground there is now well under way after an exceptionally difficult clearance of the site which contributed largely to the delay. Tenders for the games hall, which is to be built on the playground, are expected to be invited shortly. It may be that this games hall will be a success from the start. On the other hand, experience in operating it might equally well dictate some other type of building, or at least extensive modifications to this one—in which case we shall not—in one way—have been sorry to have waited and Likewise with Signal Hill, which has for some time been thought of as a site for an open-air theatre. We have now decided that the site is unsuitable for the purpose, and it is fortunate perhaps that we were not already committed to any irrevocable plans.
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seen.
Mr. SALES and Mrs. SYMONS are both understandably concerned to see the maximum use made of the Urban Council's physical facilities, and to this end propose that the Urban Services Department should have its own Physical Education section. In the Director of Education's opinion, there can be no question of separating the present Physical Education section from the Education Department since the section's primary responsibility is for physical education and recreation in schools and organized on a school basis, as well as for the inspection and training of physical education teachers. There may, however, be a case for the Urban Services Department to have a physical recreation unit staffed by qualified personnel to complement the work of the Education Department in this field, and careful examination will be given to this matter.
On a related subject, Mr. Peter C. K. CHAN wants better supervision of playgrounds in order to prevent delinquency. Over the past few months, we have been trying to find out whether and to what extent playgrounds are abused, but with little success. If Mr. CHAN has any specific information of this nature, I am sure he will wish to pass it on to me. On the playleadership front, there is solid progress to report this year despite Mr. CHAN's disappointment. The Chinese Young Men's Christian Association has been successfully operating its scheme in one of our Kowloon playgrounds for some months; the Select Committee has approved outline proposals for another scheme to be run by the Children's Playground Association; and a third scheme submitted by the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association is about to be put to the Select Committee. I am sure that Members will agree that we should all be most grateful to these organizations for the practical help they are giving.
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