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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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Mr. PAO Ping-wing reported factually on the $385 million which the Capital Works Select Committee was shepherding through the various procedures to provide capital projects during the current financial year. He then gave comparative figures over the last several years which indicated a rise of some 177 per cent since 1981-82. I agree with him that this is a year of which the Council should be proud.
He supported the setting up a Central Provident Fund but suggested as a preliminary step laws should be made to require all employers and employees to have their own provident funds at an early date.
Mr. PAO then gave his views on the management of aging and badly managed multi-storey buildings.
He also gave his views on the various ways by which Legislative Councillors could be elected to that Council—by functional constituencies, electoral colleges and also by direct elections and considered that approximately 20 per cent of the Legislative Council seats should be filled by direct elections with effect from 1988.
Mr. K. K. FUNG gave his arguments for and against direct elections to the Legislative Council and considered that some form of direct elections to that Council should be in place by 1988 and opposed to any deferrals until 1990 as had been suggested by some other people. With those of other members of the Council, Mr. FUNG's views on this matter have been passed to the Administration.
I have tried to give a very brief summary and indeed one or two comments on the speeches which had been made by members of the Council which have covered a large area of ground and which have shown the maturity and a grasp of civic affairs which we have come to expect from Councillors.
This Council is a body which on the whole conducts its business in a sane and sensible manner. We have a wide diversity of views, but at the same time we also have a unity of purpose, and that purpose is to serve the urban public of Hong Kong to the best of our ability.
In so doing, Urban Councillors and District Board members alike must remember we are custodians of public funds and should dispense them with due care and attention to the overall need. Here I quote the advice given by Shakespeare in Henry IV Part 2:
'When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then we must rate the cost of the erection;
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then but draw anew the model in fewer offices,
or at last desist to build at all?'
I now put the motion to a vote.
The question was put.
The motion was carried unanimously.
MOTION
1. MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE LIBRARIES SELECT COMMITTEE, moved the following motion:-
'RESOLVED that the Public Health and Municipal Services (Designation of Libraries) (Urban Council Area) Order 1987 be made under section 105K of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap. 132.'
He said (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, I rise to move the motion standing in my name:-
'THAT the Public Health and Municipal Services (Designation of Libraries) (Urban Council Area) Order 1987 be made under section 105K of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap. 132,'
The purpose of the order is to designate the premises at the first floor of the Office Block, Hong Ning Road Playground, Kwun Tong, Kowloon as libraries and to amend the schedule to the Designation of Libraries (Urban Council Area) Order 1986.
I beg to move.
MR. LAM CHAK-PIU, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE LIBRARIES SELECT COMMITTEE, seconded the motion (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
The question was put.
The motion was carried unanimously.
ADJOURNMENT—3.17 p.m.
CHAIRMAN (in English):-That concludes the business of today's meeting. The Council stands adjourned until Tuesday, 10 February 1987 at 2.30 p.m.
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