XN000022-1996-07-05 — Page 20

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Governor: I can and that is one of the nicest requests for a ticket I have ever heard. I must introduce you to the last caller, you would have a lot to talk about. Can I say straightaway that if you send us your name and address we will try to ensure that you are invited to one of the celebrations around the time of the hand over, because I would like to meet you. Oh, and that goes for your predecessor on the line as well if he is still listening rather than shaving, if he is still listening and sends us his name and address we would like to bury the hatchet and invite him too. But it would be very nice to meet you and thank you for what you said about human rights and the rule of law. They are the spine chord of our society in Hong Kong and we do have to go on speaking up for them and defending them.

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Question: My name is Edward Stokes (phonetic). I would like to ask two specific questions - widely different areas but I think they are linked and they are linked through the danger, perhaps, of Hong Kong placing economic growth above quality of life.

The first issue relates to the harbour and in fact ferry safety, which as a ferry traveller I notice, whatever the Marine Department may say, is in fact totally chaotic due to both reclamation and the vast growth of harbour traffic. What corrective steps is the government taking about the state of harbour safety? That is question one.

Governor: On question one, we are just, as you probably know, facing a bit of industrial action in the harbour precisely because of efforts that the Marine Department are taking to improve safety and improve the circumstances in which so much traffic every day passes through what is sometimes a turbulent channel. But I totally agree with you that we do have to ensure that we retain as good a safety record in the harbour as possible. If you have got any ideas or proposals about how me might do that I would be very happy to discuss them with the Marine Department. We do want to avoid any accident in the harbour because it would be calamitous for us, not least for our tourism.

Question: Right, well that is very welcome and I will send something on which relates to a very near massive disaster a week ago which is in correspondence at the moment with the ferry company.

The second question relates to the country parks. Hong Kong is a very, very beautiful place - just having come back from other parts of south-east Asia where one can see so many places where countryside has been lost, very, very beautiful places that can never be regained. How can it be, in a place as wealthy as Hong Kong - and you were rightly mentioning the $9 billion being spent on a sewage scheme which is obviously very welcome - how can it be, in a place as wealthy as Hong Kong that the and a buffer for long promised extension to the North Lantau Country Park - a quick

the airport and mentioned in the Chek Lap Kok EIA- how can it be that that is regularly refused on the grounds of lack of money when it would cost $25 million? And this extends back for some five years, a plan proposed by the government's own Country Parks Board.

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