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facilities as a matter of priority since we have already reached a crisis stage.
Another issue closely linked to the problem of the provision of cremation and cemetery facilities concerns the need to expand funeral parlour and depot facilities up to a standard acceptable to the general public. Based on my observations I think it would be right to say that every member of the public wants to have dignified funeral services for those members of the family who are dead. This widespread wish however is bedevilled by the fact that funeral costs at private parlours are extremely high. Based on my observation too I think it would be true to say that the standard of funeral parlour type facilities and services provided by the Government and the Urban Council is un- realistically low. Indeed, it is true to say that the present standard is very much geared to the requirements of paupers. Their services are certainly very cheap but at the same time they are certainly not dignified enough in terms of general expectations of the public. The result is that for the non-church-going public, they are more or less forced to patronise private funeral parlours which charge extremely high fees. Cases in which bereaved families went into debt to cover funeral expenses are only too common. Fortunately, in very recent years this situation has been relieved somewhat by the coming into being of non-profit-making bodies offering a fairly reasonable standard of funeral services to the public. However, in my view this is very much a service that the Government and the Urban Council should provide for the public. What has been done so far is certainly not enough. It should be our aim to provide a dignified and inexpensive funeral service for the general public of a standard not lower than that which obtains in the private funeral parlours. In this connection, I am conscious that the authorities have plans to reprovision the Hung Hom Funeral Depot so as to provide up to 6 service halls, 18 reposing rooms and 3 body- dressing rooms. My criticism here again is that, judging from the speed with which this reprovisioning proposal has been handled, one could not avoid getting the impression that the Government here is again dragging its feet. The present hope is that the reprovisioning might be brought about by November 1977, whereas such facilities were needed a long time ago. By failing to respond to a legitimate and widespread demand for a much needed service, we have created an artificial shortage for private funeral parlour operators to make excessive profits. The general public is not unaware of the free or very cheap funeral and burial services offered by the authorities. But the trouble is that what has been offered and what is still being offered is not of a standard which they want. We seem to have failed to grasp that after almost 20 years of continuous economic prosperity, the expectations of the
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Hong Kong public have changed very considerably. Our response to these rising expectations has so far been disappointing.
With these remarks Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
(Mr. H. M. G. FORSGATE left the meeting at this point.)
MR. SHUM CHOI-SANG (in Cantonese): -Mr. Chairman, in the past year, most countries have been experiencing an economic depression. Being primarily an industrial and commercial community, Hong Kong has also been under the same pressure. Many factories had to cut down their number of workers and to economize on expenditures be- cause there are not sufficient orders.
What immediately followed was the question of unemployment which resulted in more and more workers switching to the hawking trade. The hawker permitted areas set up at the initial stage by this Council were insufficient to accommodate the large number of hawkers, and so the Council had to increase the number of such areas within a short period of time.
The introduction of the hawker permitted areas has given rise to several problems which remain to be solved.
(i) Should the "first come first served" policy be retained?
(ii) How to minimise the ill effects on the shops in the areas con-
cerned?
(iii) How to ease traffic congestions occasioned by the hawker
permitted areas?
(iv) Should all the hawkers be licensed?
The application of the "first come first served" policy will bring about two possible results:
(i) Firstly, the strong the powerful will be occupying the better sites, and there will be the possibility of triad elements entering into the picture.
(ii) Secondly, it is hoped that the established practice will be followed and hawkers will eventually gain fixed pitches. It is true that most hawkers especially the unlicensed ones used to hawk at the same site or in the same district everyday before the number of hawkers steeply increased, but with the increase in the number of the unemployed and the consequent increase in the number of hawkers, it has become evident that