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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
the situation in the future will be considerable but it is regarded as essential in the interests of a Port of the size and importance of Hong Kong.
We have noted with pleasure on pages 24 and 26 the provision in the Estimates for re-establishing a statistical department under the aegis of the Import and Export Office. We agree that these statistics ought to embrace all phases of Hong Kong's trade and thus give a clear indication of Hong Kong's commercial position.
Another of our pressing local needs is the provision of adequate and sufficient recreation grounds. This Colony has arrived at a stage in its development when this matter has to be faced fairly and squarely, seeing that it is part of the curriculum of every school in this Colony to instil into every scholar the value of outdoor exercises and physical culture. One has only to read the Report of the Director of Education in order to appreciate this, and on any day and at any time one has only to wander through any part of the Colony to get an idea of what a hold the love of sport is getting on all and sundry. It ranges from the small boy who plays with a shuttlecock in the streets or kicks a ball about in Statue Square to the vast crowds who attend football and other matches.
Your Excellency has appointed a Committee to go into the ques- tion of providing more playing-grounds, and no doubt we shall receive many valuable recommendations from them, but we most strongly urge on the Government the conversion of certain large areas into what we would like to describe for want of a better term, as "Municipal Recreation Areas," and in particular we have in mind the low level area between Aberdeen and Deep Water Bay, and the area round the foot-hills of Kowloon known as "The Park," and the Shatin Valley.
In a cosmopolitan Colony like Hong Kong it is desirable to encourage the coming together of the various nationalities in friendly intercourse. What better means can there be to assist this than in the field of sport and on the public recreation grounds of the Colony?
Whilst dealing with the subject of recreation grounds, we desire to draw attention to the fact that the recommendations of the Kowloon Residents' Association regarding the making and equipping of sufficient playing-grounds for the children of Kowloon have not yet been carried out by the Government, and in particular we desire to ask why no provision has been made in the Estimates for 1930 for the promised children's playground between Salisbury Road and Middle Road. We would also inquire why sufficient fencing has not yet been put round the children's playground in Chatham Road, as has been repeatedly urged upon the Government.
There is also the vital question of earmarking unbuilt-on spaces as lungs for the Colony; open spaces for dwellers in the congested districts.
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