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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
## ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, I will call the meeting to order.
I wish to say how pleased we are with the re-appointment of four of our colleagues, Mr. Peter P. F. CHAN, Mr. John MACKENZIE, Mr. F. K. Hu and Mrs. Grace Ho and I also congratulate Mr. Lawrence FUNG and Mr. Kim Y. S. Cham on their appointment to this Council. I hope they will have a very rewarding tenure of service here. At the last meeting, the Council had not been informed officially that Mr. Alex S. C. Wu would stand down, therefore I did not have the opportunity to say farewell to Mr. Wu on your behalf in Council, although I did so at a private function. Nevertheless, I would like to put on record our appreciation of Mr. Alex Wu's good work in the Council during the short period he was with us, in particular, for his service as Chairman of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
## MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting held on 9th March, 1976 were confirmed.
## STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-
The Environment
Hong Kong must be much more concerned with its environment, perhaps more so for good reason than elsewhere. Our terribly over-crowded conditions create more dirt and noise, result in bad traffic and pedestrian congestion, cause much friction and build up dangerous tensions. The situation is aggravated by widespread street-trading, extensive road and housing development work, open breaches of lease conditions, and other causes besides. It is a veritable list of adverse factors which could bring in their wake grave social and health problems. This is Hong Kong today. But, need it be so tomorrow? Yet, Hong Kong is vigorous, tolerant, enterprising and always on the move. Some of this energy should be applied quickly to arrest the deteriorating conditions and to overcome the mostly man-made disadvantages.
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Then, there should be strong backing of all measures to combat pollution in every form. For, it contaminates our surroundings. And so, it is detrimental to the mental and physical well-being of our people.
On our part in particular, there is a continuing opportunity to act effectively for the betterment of living conditions here. It is our statutory responsibility to clean our city physically. Even though conditions may be difficult and old habits may die hard, yet by the intelligent use of our resources through vigorous and persistent measures of persuasion, education and enforcement, we will succeed in time, however disappointing temporary setbacks may be. But, it has to be a combined effort by the people and the authorities. In fact, the people must also want a clean Hong Kong, everywhere and every day.
It is not good enough for the public to respond to ephemeral campaigns today and then relapse tomorrow to wallow in filth in certain areas. Neither should there be the need to continue spending public money freely to tell the people what their citizenship duties are. Enough has been done in this direction. Indeed, much good publicity work was done in the past few years to attract attention to the disgraceful conditions caused by shameful antisocial habits and to overcome public apathy to them. And so, all credit should be given to this combined achievement on the part of many people and organizations, both government departments and private associations. However, the point has been reached where the campaign in its present form is yielding diminishing returns and even drawing adverse comment on its high cost. So, rather than just prescribe the mixture as before, it would be wise to examine the case again and decide whether there should be a timely change of treatment.
Anyway, the public takes many things for granted here. And, not the least is the tremendous work done by the Urban Services Department in sweeping the streets day in and day out, from two shifts everywhere to even eight times a day in certain parts. Otherwise, without doubt, the place would be badly littered. To put it starkly, if Hong Kong is relatively clean, it is still the humble labourer who does it.
Furthermore, to make our surroundings more pleasant, urgent action should be taken against visual pollution. Here, we can easily find ample scope on a practical plane. To start off, we should remove unsightly posters, handbills and advertisements and the Government, for its part, could enact legislation to regulate their use and control their display. For twenty years, we have worked on this need, only to be beset by doubts and dilatoriness on the part of the authorities. Unless they respond energetically, I fear Hong Kong will spend much
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