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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Ladies and Gentlemen. The meeting is called to order. The debate on the Statement of Aims for 1983 which was adjourned from Tuesday's meeting will now resume. I shall call on the first speaker Mrs. Grace Ho.
MRS. GRACE HO (in English):-Mr. Chairman, I would like to refer to the 1983-84 Statement of Aims for the Council and wish to draw attention to the section on Museums. The Museum Select Committee has adopted a new format with separate headings relating to Planning and Development, Resources, Activities and Co-operation with other bodies. This enables us to monitor each aspect of our work more easily.
On planning and development of permanent Museums, all the present premises are temporary. This is unsatisfactory because under the Memorandum of Administrative Arrangements in 1973, the building of museums is Government's responsibility. When the building is completed, it is at this stage that the Council takes over. Although the Museum staff and the relevant officers of Urban Services Department are consulted, the Council has no say as to when the buildings are to be built nor the appointment of architects. During the past year, Government appointed three consultants to advise on the permanent Museums of Art, History, Science and Technology. A new post of Curator (Planning) was created in order to co-ordinate detailed work involved. We understand that the Government's vetting Committee has approved of the specifications drawn up by the consultants and the Museums staff, but we are unaware of any further progress. Although Museums may rank in priority below, for instance, hospitals yet they do provide a free venue of recreation and education to the public and I take this opportunity to make a plea for an early start to the Museum projects.
On a happier note, tenders have finally been called for renovating Flagstaff House into a Museum of Teaware. We are hopeful of opening this branch Museum for the public to enjoy Mr. K. S. Lo's generous donation of teaware by the end of this year.
The Museum of History has moved from Star House, Tsim Sha Tsui to Kowloon Park to another temporary home in what was previously two barrack buildings. The architect Jason YUEN is to be congratulated on his imaginative conversion work. The public will be able to judge for themselves when the 'Fossil Man in China' exhibition opens on 8 February.
In 1982, the Museum of Art mounted a number of major exhibitions including Chinese Bamboo Carving, British Drawings and Watercolours, Contemporary Chinese landscape painting, Japanese Contemporary Pottery, Sculpture of Thailand and Picasso Intime. The international selection was aimed at giving Hong Kong people a wider horizon. The Museum of History was fully involved in planning the move to Kowloon Park and had to slow down on exhibitions.
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In 1982, the Museums continued to expand their collections. With the effects of the world recession being felt, we were more successful in acquiring items from auctions. The Museums acquisition policy extends to purchase of works of contemporary local artists as a practical encouragement to development of arts in Hong Kong.
Before I leave the subject of Museums, I wish to express my appreciation of the hard work of the Museum staff. Their dedication and high standards achieved have also been favourably commented on by overseas exhibitors.
I would now like to turn to transport. The present transport policy was laid down in a White Paper published in May 1979. The research and traffic projections etc. were formulated in 1978 nearly five years ago when the economy was buoyant, unlike today. I think it is time to take stock and have an overall review to consider whether changes are required and to tackle the practical problems which have since emerged.
The Mass Transit Railway with its extensions now carries about 35 million passengers per month, i.e. 21% of the total number of passenger journeys made by public transport which is close to the projected figure of 25% by 1986. This has partly been achieved by the M.T.R. not charging premium rates for premium service as originally planned in the White Paper and are competing with other forms of public transport such as buses and ferries. The public now has a wider choice of public transport and at relatively low fares but can this situation be maintained? The building of satellite towns in the New Territories has undoubtedly provided a better environment for our people than the crowded urban areas, but are lower rents going to be offset by higher travel costs for commuters? The public transport cake is growing, but slowly, and the slices for other public transport undertakings are getting smaller with competition from the M.T.R. and the electrified Kowloon-Canton Railway. With the bottom dropping out of the property market, that main prop to the M.T.R. and the K.C.R. as well as proposed for other public transport companies has disappeared. We may therefore have to face the spectre of increasing public transport fares if the present standards of public transport services are to be kept, let alone improved. Clearly some rescue operation is required if the situation is not to deteriorate. Will this come from the public purse?
With these rather doleful words, Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
(Mr. Edmund W. H. CHOW and Mr. TSIN Sai-nin arrived during Mrs. Grace Ho's address.)
MR. LAWRENCE H. L. FUNG (in English):-Mr. Chairman,
Capital Works Select Committee
Amongst the responsibilities of the Capital Works Select Committee is that of co-ordinating and monitoring the progress of development projects approved by functional select committees.