XN000022-1972-03-15 — Page 39

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Wednesday, March 15, 1972

Mrs. Li went on to urge Government to provide more recreational

and sports facilities for school children and other young people as a whole.

"We need more football and basket-ball pitches, swimming pools,

picnic grounds, camp sites, community centres and youth centres for concerts,

plays, exhibitions, dances and other forms of healthy entertainment, she

said.

On the Financial Secretary's proposals to increase car parking

charges and to charge rates on empty flats, she said: "The increase in

carpark charges and the levy of one half the amount of rates for empty

flats can be described as irritating measures similar to cutting off one's

toes to fit the shoes."

More multi-storey carparks were needed to keep cars off the roads,

she said.

Serious Repercussions

The charging of half rates for empty flats to combat high rents

might boomerang into even more serious repercussions, she added.

The high cost of construction would continue and if the demand

was there, the rates would still be added onto the rents, she said.

"In a place like Hong Kong, so sensitive to alight changes and

so liable to sharp reactions, the law of supply and demand must be left

to find its own level. Emergency rent control in time of need is sufficient

and effective enough for the purpose."

Mrs. Li suggested a system of deficit subsidy for social welfare

services in very much the same way as the Medical and Education subsidies,

to maintain a uniformly high standard of such services.

Nowhere