Suggestions 9/1
regarded by
Govt as bad jokes
HOW is the slide to be halted?
The District Commissioner New Territories presides over a department nearly one thousand strong. If this major department has any stated aims or objectives, I have yet to hear of them. Nor, in most cases, are its relations with other departments operating in the New Territories, and the division of responsibilities, defined with any clarity.
Regrettably, because of confused working conditions and fear of being forgotten when promotions come round, good personnel are often unwilling to work in the NT. Many departments regard their NT operations with detachment and
leave the New Territories Administration to do any necessary explaining to the public.
Most, including the Secretariat, forget to consider the NT when new policy is formulated. All, with the possible exception of the Police, are unwilling to decentralise in the true sense of the word.
District Officers tend to do best when left alone and when operating in virtual isolation. They were, I believe fairly successful in the wilder parts of Africa. But in Hongkong the Secretariat has seen
to it that they have little real power. They are supposed
to co-ordinate in some way the work of an increasing number of departments which do not wish to be co-ordinated, least of all by District Officers.
Either all departments must decentralise and delegate powers or the DO system must be modified. Given Hongkong's circumstances the latter
7
is he close enough to the Secretariat to influence · policy. My own view is that the District Commissioner
should be housed in the Secretariat where he could avail himself of the excellent registries and other central facilities. His present headquarters could thus be disbanded, at some saving to the tax payer.
FINAL PART
By J.C.H. Marriott
alternative is inescapable. In my opinion the DO's should be shom of their remaining executive powers and become essentially political
animals like the CDO's.
The position of the District Commissioner is also unsatisfactory. He is neither close enough physically to his DO's to know what is going on, nor
HONG
KONG
STANDARD
LÖV
Primary responsibility for the administration of the New Territories should rest with a 'New Territories Council', predominantly
unofficial. It would be difficult but not impossible to find suitable members of the public. All departments operating in the NT should be represented, at a high
9th Feb., 1971.
i
level. The Council's responsibilities and financial discretion must be wide and its resources ample. Its proceedings would no doubt have to be conducted in Chinese.
At all costs the new Council I envisage must avoid paper planning without administrative and financial backing. Shatin is a prime example of such non-planning. The people there were clamouring for development; they were appeased with the promise of a plan. After many years an impressive plan was produced; they were then told that it was merely a blue print and that no development could take place within its boundaries until Government had put in the necessary infrastructure. It is not surprising that local frustration has boiled over at Shatin in the shape of
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