Thursday, April 26, 1973
TASK OF NEW HOUSING BODY IS TO BUILD FOR FUTURE
Governor Pledges Support For Housing Drive
**
The primary task of the new Housing Authority is "to build, and to
build well and to build fast and to build for the future," the Governor,
Sir Murray MacLehose, said today.
He was speaking at the Authority's inaugural meeting today.
He said the inadequacy and scarcity of housing and the harsh situations
that result from it was "one of the major and most constant sources of unhappiness
and friction between the Government and the population."
This, he said,implied no criticism of the magnificent work already
achieved in this field.
He said that it was merely a "frank and dispassionate acknowledgement
that the housing problem created by the influx of population still confronts
us, is very great, and must be solved."1
The Governor noted that members of the Authority were particularly
qualified to take up the various challenges.
"I believe money will not be your principal problem," he said, "but
rather how to convert it into well-planned and well-managed estates quickly
enough."
Referring to the new arrangements for the construction and management
of public housing in Hong Kong, Sir Murray said it would be some time before
a vast new programme such as this began to show results.
/He said