Page 49 of 242
78
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. MACKENZIE:-Mr. Chairman, does the Chairman of the Environmental Hygiene Select Committee agree that, in view of the increasing pressures on road cleaning and the rapidly rising costs of labour and other factors, increased mechanization would seem to be an answer, or part of an answer, to this problem?
DR. HUANG: -We do realize that, but at the moment the costing made in 1968 showed that actually it is cheaper by manual force than mechanical sweepers, the costing by mechanical sweepers being about $19,000 per mile per annum, while for manual sweeper, only about $17,000 per mile per annum.
MR. MACKENZIE:--Mr. Chairman, might I enquire when the Secretariat might find opportunity for considering this question?
CHAIRMAN: It is already under consideration. I would like to think that a decision will come very shortly, within the next few weeks.
MR. NG: Mr. Chairman, can you disclose the reason why the Secretariat has held up this request?
CHAIRMAN:-I am afraid I am unable to do so.
MR. NG: You mean that the Secretariat has just held it up without giving any reason?
CHAIRMAN:-They said they wanted to think about this outside the context of the estimates.
MR. BERNACCHI :--Mr. Chairman, can you explain why Dr. HUANG answered questions about mechanical sweepers as Chairman of the Environmental Hygiene Select Committee, but you, yourself, answered Mr. MACKENZIE question on the strength of the Hawker Control Force instead of Mr. LOBO, as Chairman of the Hawker Management?
CHAIRMAN:-The Hawker Control Force comes directly under me.
MR. BERNACCHI:-And does not mechanical sweepers come directly under you?
CHAIRMAN: ---No, they have an Assistant Director who looks after them and he is responsible to the Environmental Hygiene Select Committee.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
79
DR. DENNY M. H. HUANG, CHAIRMAN OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:-
310,836 rats and mice were collected by the department's pest control staff throughout the Urban Area during the year ended 31st March. This figure includes 51,059 trapped, 18,058 collected after poison baiting, and 241,719 collected from public rat-bins.
Complaints of rodent infestation during the same period numbered 2,894, as against 2,638 for the preceding year, an increase of 9.7%. The reason which is not considered to be any cause for concern may well have been caused by more publicity having been given to the subject of rodents and their control (as well as to other aspects of pest control) by both the press and broadcasting media- thus drawing the attention of the public to the menace and to the facilities for reporting complaints and abating the nuisance.
MR. MACKENZIE:-Mr. Chairman, is there any indication that the numbers of rats and vermin destroyed is greater than the rate of multi- plying of these rodents?
CHAIRMAN: I can't answer that; I need notice of your question.
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, are you confident that the rat census that you took with such a great degree of accuracy is any more accurate than the human census that was taken recently?
CHAIRMAN:-They are both as accurate as we can make them, Mr.
SALES.
MR. SALES: In other words then the number of rats is also less than the actual number that must exist in Hong Kong.
(1)
MOTIONS.
(13) MR. JOHN MACKENZIE asked the following question:-
What number of rats were destroyed last year? Has there been any marked increase in the number of public complaints regarding rat infestation and is this a cause for concern?
MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN moved the following Motion:-
"RESOLVED that this Council consider what parts of Phase I of the March 1969 Urban Council Report on the Reform of Local Government should be recommended to the Central Government for immediate and if necessary phased implementation".
He said:--Mr. Chairman, it has been two years since the Urban Council completed the Report on the Reform of Local Government.