24
Wednesday, March 13, 1974
FERRY COMPANIES TO BE ASKED TO EXPAND SERVICES
To Rural Areas
The Colonial Secretary, the Hon. Denys Roberts, today gave an assurance that the police will continue to do all they can to prevent boats from carrying passengers for hire unless they are licensed to do
SO.
However, the area involved is big and would require extensive patrols, he pointed out when replying to a question by the Hon. Mrs. Joyce Symons
concerning the recent tragedy in Tolo Harbour in which three people died
when a boat capsized.
Their deaths would be the subject of a Coroner's enquiry or of criminal proceedings, he said, and he was therefore unable to comment further
on the facts of the incident.
The Colonial Secretary said the government would do its best to persuade the larger ferry companies to expand their services to the New Territories to cope with the increase in holiday traffic to rural areas.
He added, however, that it would still be necessary to licence a
sufficient number of other craft to carry passengers because some of the services were needed only intermittently and were unlikely to attract large operators.
But he emphasised: "We must ensure that adequate standards of
safety are maintained, particularly by limiting the number of passengers and
by prescribing a minimum quantity of life saving equipment."
/25