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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — 2nd October 1969.
[MR SZETO] Motion
slow. Urban Renewal, whilst a pleasing term in the planners' jargon, is a painful operation and often entails social hardship and disturb- ances. But against these, are the pressing problems of safe-guarding health, protection from fire-hazards and improving traffic. The pilot scheme will provide us with the planning and legislative experience which could then be expeditiously applied to other areas that are ripe for clearance. Suitable sites should now be acquired in Sham Shui Po for similar purpose in addition to what is being done there in anticipation of a mass transit line.
In the re-development of these dilapidated areas, emphasis should be placed, in addition to traffic consideration, on the generous provision of modern market facilities, the planning and construction of which have hitherto unfortunately lagged considerably behind. Suitably designed and located markets should absorb some of the large number of hawkers who are increasingly impeding on our limited road space and posing a difficult traffic problem. May I repeat my plea made at the Budget Debate in 1967* that Government should build markets combined with car parks to help solve both the hawking and the traffic problems. Many of the hawkers are young and able-body people, and such wastage of man-power at a time when our expanding industry is crying out for labour is a sad admission of our deficiency in industrial planning. Hawking may have a special appeal to the Chinese way of life, but surely "a city of hawkers" is hardly a fitting tribute to our claim to industrial status. We must attack the problem at its roots, and preserve and direct this valuable resource of ours into proper and productive use, quite apart from any traffic consideration.
Sir, I support the motion.
MR WILFRED S. B. WONG:-Your Excellency, Hong Kong is to be complimented on its achievement and for the programmes which you have indicated in your speech. You have rightly said that the last session of the Legislative Council started in 1844 since this Council's meetings are only adjourned and never closed. May I congratulate you on bringing back the Victorian prosperity of 1844 to Hong Kong in 1969.
Achievement, like happiness, resembles a shadow, one never catches it when one chases it. Nevertheless, progress is the product of chasing. Hong Kong, in spite of its colonial status, may yet be the best governed territory of the world. The basic principle of Government is the guarantee of inviolability of life and liberty under a system of law. Hong Kong has that guarantee under the British system of law.
*1967 Hansard, page 180.
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