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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
collection of china representing a life work, but we have nowhere to house these generous gifts. Surely the time has come when a suitable City Hall Theatre and Assembly Rooms must be provided?
I notice that we contribute the sum of $1,200 per annum to the City Hall (item 211 on page 101), a very small contribution.
Year after year, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce refer in their annual report to the need of a Vehicular Ferry between the Island and Kowloon. The Public Press constantly refer to it. Are we any nearer the acquisition of such a means of communication which appears to be only too obvious and which must have a most beneficial effect on the whole Peninsula? What is our position? It appears to me to be a disgrace to the community that it is impossible to get motor vehicles from the Island to the mainland or vice versa between the hours of 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. and then only by very anti- quated means and laborious methods-a mere sop to the public.
Sessional papers have been issued but we seem no nearer a solu- tion. Is it that Government's terms are too exacting or is it that no cut and dried policy has yet been formulated? Is it a Government obligation like a road or is it a matter for private enterprise?
How many more years shall we be talking of the motor road to Canton? Rumour has it that the contract for the construction of the motor road in Chinese Territory to our boundary has already been given out and I have myself seen the pegging out, close to our own boundary. We are, however, almost entirely in the dark as to the position.
Hong Kong is a great international port and as such there is a constant stream of individuals looking for employment. Some are attracted by the prospects of possible work, some because they are unable to get work elsewhere. There is also another class, who cease to become employable. The able bodied are found employment by the General Charities Organisation, the Hong Kong Benevolent Associa- tion and other charities but it is of the last class I now speak. It is impossible to find work for them. They wander between the Sailors' Home and the Hong Kong Benevolent Association and often through no fault of their own become a charge on the Colony. They are of various nationalities and, as far as possible, they should be repatriated, but there is still a residue for whom a refuge should be provided. We have no old age pensions or insurance. They are nevertheless an obligation of the Colony.
The Colony is slowly but surely becoming, for various reasons, a manufacturing centre. The probabilities are that it will sub- stantially increase in the not distant future. This carries with it in these days certain Government obligations to see that the factories are conducted according to modern hygienic methods and operated on proper lines. The Report of the Inspector of Factories (Annex B) to the Report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for last year iş
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