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TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1981
LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES HAD NOT CHANGED MUCH IN HUNDREDS OF YEARS AND YET 50 YEARS AGO A NEED WAS DISCERNED FOR THIS NEW ASSOCIATION AS A MEANS OF MEETING THE CHANGE WHICH THE 20TH CENTURY WAS ALREADY BRINGING TO THE NEW TERRITORIES, TO DIRECT THE PACE AND DIRECTION OF CHANGE AND TO ADVISE THE GOVERNMENT NOT SIMPLY ABOUT INDIVIDUAL VILLAGES AND DISTRICTS BUT ABOUT MATTERS AFFECTING THE NEW TERRITORIES AS A WHOLE.
→THE WINDS OF CHANGE WERE BLOWING AND NEW CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION FOR THE NEW TERRITORIES WERE NEEDED,+ MR AKERS-JONES
SAID.
EVEN SO BY PRESENT STANDARDS THE CHANGES WHICH TOOK PLACE WERE OT VERY IMPRESSIVE: A FEW ROADS WERE BUILT, A FEW SCHOOLS WERE OPENED AND THE POPULATION OF THE NEW TERRITORIES INCREASED BETWEEN 1:00 AND 1950 FROM 100 000 TO 200 000.
BUT BETWEEN 1950-1960 A GREAT WAVE OF PEOPLE FROM OUTSIDE CAME TO SETTLE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES.
LARGE-SCALE PIG AND CHICKEN BREEDING WAS INTRODUCED AND VEGETABLE FARMING BECAME WIDESPREAD.
IT WAS THEN A QUESTION OF COPING WITH PROBLEMS WITH NO COHERENT DEVELOPMENT PLAN.
BUT IT WAS ALSO A TIME DURING WHICH ELECTIONS FOR VILLAGE REPRESENTATIVES AND THE CREATION OF RURAL COMMITTEES WITH FORMAL CONSTITUTIONS TOOK PLACE AND AFTER A TIME OF SOME UNCERTAINTY AND DISPUTE, THERE WAS A GREAT FORMALISATION OF THE CENTRAL
ORGANISATION OF THE KUK, IN TIME FOR THE VAST CHANGES THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THE LAST 20 YEARS.
+1 AM PROUD, MYSELF, TO HAVE BEEN PRESENT AT THE ELECTION OF THE 14TH TERM OF THE KUK IN 1960 AND TO HAVE SHARED THE EXPERIENCES OF THE LAST 20 YEARS WITH YOU ALL.
+WE HAVE GROWN OLDER AND HOPEFULLY WISER TOGETHER.+
MR AKERS-JONES SAID IN 1961 THE LAND EXCHANGE SYSTEM WAS INTRODUCED SO AS TO LESSEN THE CONFLICT DURING THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT BETWEEN LANDOWNERS AND THE GOVERNMENT AND TO GIVE LANDOWNERS A SHARE IN THE INCREASING LAND PRICES BROUGHT ABOUT BY DEVELOPMENT.
+LITTLE DID WE KNOW IN 1961 THAT THE VALUE OF THOSE EARLY LETTER B'S WOULD BE WORTH IN 1981, 1 000 TIMES MORE THAN THEIR ORIGINAL VALUE, HE SAID.
+AND SO IN 1981 WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF FURTHER FAR-REACHING CHANGE.
+THE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME HAS SPREAD ITS TENTACLES INTO ALMOST EVERY CORNER OF THE NEW TERRITORIES, SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF FINDING HOMES AND WORK FOR OUR PEOPLE, BUT CREATING PROBLEMS TOO.
/+PROBLEMS OF .......