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concept whereby in the future our markets would look somewhat different whilst providing better facilities to keep up with modern trends and, in so doing, also allow for full economic use of the sites.
However, I think that your department should not delay any longer in reviewing the antiquated By-laws and the old-fashioned methods of supervision. Markets have become big business, the demand for refrigeration facilities and different type commodities is ever increasing and we must keep up with modern times. We need new type of management in our markets rather than a system based mainly on hygienic control.
I would also like to see greater emphasis being put in the building of the modular markets where the needs are great, specially in the existing old resettlement estates, to provide better market facilities to residents in those areas and to overcome the hawker problem. The modular markets have proven useful and successful in housing estates and they should likewise be in resettlement estates, given the proper management.
MR. A. de O. SALES:—Mr. Chairman, a convention has grown up around the presentation of the Statement of Progress each year in this Council. It is my understanding, Sir, that you wish that I be compelled to speak on this occasion about the development of our cultural services so, if I take up this Council's time, it is understood that I do so under duress. (Laughter).
Sir, the paragraphs under Nos. 96 to 106 relating to the cultural services provided by this Council make most interesting reading. Council can well take quiet pride and satisfaction from the great expansion of the service we render the public and the increasing variety of presentations that we make in the City Hall. As I have been a member of the City Hall Committee ever since the start in 1950 or 1951, I can well recall that when the City Hall was suggested it was thought by many people in high places that it would be a "white elephant". Even today, after more than ten years of existence and notwithstanding a very great record of service to the public, when the City Hall and all its facilities appear to be virtually "bursting at the seams", there are still people in high places who would like Government to play the role of "Doubting Thomas" whenever this Council makes the self-evident proposal that there should be complementary facilities in Kowloon.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to emphasize today two points made in this Statement of Progress as our immediate targets. First, we should impress upon the Government the importance of granting a block vote to the Cultural Affairs Select Committee just as there is a block vote for the Recreation and Amenities Select Committee. This arrangement has proved so very successful in the development of our recreational facilities, and will certainly prove equally useful for the expansion of the cultural services which this Council provides for the education and entertainment of the public of Hong Kong. Secondly, the Council has proposed that Government should consider acquiring a portable stage so that we might take our programmes to the people beyond the confines of the City Hall. This we have tried to do once before, but we have not gone ahead again because the experiment, without the aid of an acoustics shell, has not proved good, much as we would have liked it. Such equipment costs less than half a million dollars as we have discovered from enquiries made, and so there can be no justification in our affluent circumstances for Government to withhold the early purchase of this equipment which would greatly benefit the people throughout the urban areas and particularly in the New Territories. The Urban Council is seriously handicapped in its wish to go out and make available to the people everywhere, more so in the thickly populated districts, the programmes which we have been able to present in the City Hall.
Then, as our ultimate target, we must ask once more that Government seriously consider, and in double-quick time, the construction of the Civic Centre in Kowloon which we have urged upon the Government for ever so long. It surprises me that, notwithstanding the research the Urban Council has done in this matter, Government has still taken so long to reach a decision in principle. Surely, the need for these facilities elsewhere than in the Central District need not be proved anymore as the statistics which we have on the usage of the City Hall over the years are very impressive. Indeed, the demand is so great that it is clear the Government owes it to the people to build quickly such facilities in Kowloon where the population is more than double that of the Island.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI:--Mr. Chairman, a very short statement or speech on resettlement in our progress report. I note, almost with horror, that only 9,640 persons were offered resettlement in urban estates. Therefore, I urge Government to investigate more sites in the urban areas, in particular, more on Hong Kong Island. I have elaborated on this theme in committees very often in the past year, and I think that the situation is getting almost desperate. There are very many squatters and very many other persons entitled to resettlement on Hong Kong Island, and indeed in Kowloon but in Hong Kong Island especially, that have not got the estates to move to. Hing Wah estate in Chai Wan is now ready, Stage I is, but where are the other estates? What has happened to the proposal to erect another resettlement estate in Aberdeen? Has there been any investigation into estates, further estates, in the southern part of Hong Kong Island. Admittedly the
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