XN000022-1978-08-31 — Page 16

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It might be helpful if I were to take this opportunity of

replying to the three points Mr. Wong made in his speech. But please

bear in mind that in speaking of these three points I am doing so

against a background of Government expenditure and effort in and for

the New Territories that has never been matched at any time in the

history of Hong Kong; and the Secretary for the New Territories is a

member of the Executive Council.

Firstly housing. Implementation of the small house policy,

which was approved so as to enable villagers more easily to build houses

for themselves to live in, began in 1972, and since then 4,853 applications

have been approved up to the end of March this year. While it is true

that the Secretary for the New Territories found it necessary to interrupt

the processing of applications in some areas at the end of last year

because the policy was being misused on a large scale for private profit,

I am glad to hear that recent discussions you have had with the Secretary

have hopefully resolved this problem, but, I should add, it is important

that the spirit of the policy should be observed.

With regard to the provision of secondary school places, during

the initial stages of development of the new towns and the opening of

new secondary schools so as to provide free junior secondary education,

that for practical reasons new schools will normally only operate Form

I classes initially and will extend into higher forms each year thereafter.

However, a limited number of classes in Forms II and III will be allowed.

in some of the new schools that open this September. The provision of

new schools to achieve universal junior secondary education will substantially

improve the regional distribution of schools in keeping with our aim to

/provide a proper