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people. There is no question of it doing otherwise. Therefore, selection should be personal and not along party lines. It must sensibly be made according to proven ability and integrity. Moreover, the holding of any public office calls for the unqualified application of all the time and effort needed to do the job well. And, for the people's good, the pursuit of equality of treatment in leadership selection cannot let mediocrity box in the choice. It has to be open in all fairness. To be realistic, the margin of error hardly exists here to allow for an indiscriminate division of spoils, as it were. To think otherwise would be foolhardy and doubtless also be at odds with this hard-headed society.
Moreover, proven effective and successful management by design, and surely not by reaction or by fluke, cannot give way to potential inefficiency and ineffectualness, if in a hard world the community's interest is to be served properly. Thus, the people here expect that the Council will put its best talents to work for them consistently.
While the principle of parity of participation must be encouraged, and it is also desirable to have total involvement, nevertheless it must not be used to buttress the passive and the ineffectual. From each according to his ability could well be the guiding principle in such a pass. Certainly, whatever happens, the Council must not deprive the people of the benefit of effective committee leadership at all levels. To aim at participation by all is wise, for sure; still, community betterment cannot be sacrificed to achieve it. For, the orderly progress of the community is the real test. And so, in this as in any other respect, common sense must prevail when sorting out all personal claims. Integrity of design and purpose would be called to account too were it not so.
The Council's significant presence in the community, achieved by dint of hard work and imaginative action over the last five years, cannot be blurred by claims and pretensions not capable of standing up to the test of reason. Pursue just personal aspirations, by all means, but keep a sense of community values all the time. Is the Council to be dis- tracted from its positive and well-ordered management transformation? Is it thinking through the implications of unfettered compromise? Indeed, is there not the risk that the original call for progressive or- ganizational reform has since become muted in the power scramble?
All things considered, then, what is the prime determinant? political solution or the people's interest?
A
(Miss Cecilia L. Y. YEUNG and Mr. Edmund W. H. CHOW arrived at this point.)
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
PAPER
The following paper was laid on the table:
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Report to the Urban Council by the Director of Urban Services and Secretary, Urban Council, for the month of February, 1978.
MOTIONS
(1) MRS. E. ELLIOTT, CHAIRMAN OF THE LIBRARIES SELECT COMMITTEE, moved the following motion:
"RESOLVED that the Library (Amendment) By-laws, 1978, be made under section 105L of the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, Cap. 132."
She said (in English):-Mr. Chairman, as Chairman of the Libraries Select Committee, I rise on the motion standing in my name.
As Members of this Council are aware, there is a clear need for increasing the provision of study facilities for students, particularly in the months preceding and during major public examinations.
Through the efforts of the Libraries Select Committee, I am happy to say that the Government has designated to the Director of Education the responsibility for co-ordinating the provision and expansion of such facilities.
However, it would be unrealistic to expect an immediate solution to this problem, and in an effort to meet the increased demand for such facilities in the coming year, the Libraries Select Committee has recently introduced a number of regulations for use of its study rooms during the period March to June. These seek to:
(a) increase the number of existing seats through the introduction
of a tri-sessional arrangement;
(b) meet the need where it is most felt during this time of the year, by restricting use of the rooms to registered members of the Council's Libraries who are registered candidates for major public examinations;
(c) make access to the rooms more equitable by a system of public
applications; and
(d) ensure that the facilities are not abused by the introduction
of simple rules on punctuality and absences during sessions.
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