1958-1959 — Page 12

screened off by a half-door. Such cooking facilities as there are are shared by many families. A decent family life in such conditions is virtually impossible and it is a source of wonder that the inhabitants of these squalid dwellings remain so cheerful and undaunted by adver- sity and that serious epidemics do not occur.

4. The rent of a cubicle (average 63 sq. ft.) ranges from about $30 to $80 a month, and for a bed-space (average 24 sq. ft.) from $12 to $30 a month. A room of 120 sq. ft. with access to light and ventilation will cost up to $120 a month. Pre-war four storey tenements are being pulled down and the sites rapidly redeveloped with eight- and ten-storey tenement buildings. Conditions obtaining in these new tenements are very little better than those which previously existed, except that they have reasonable sanitary facilities and are built of sound and fire resisting construction. Rents of pre-war premises are controlled under the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, but as the floors are sub-divided and sub-let, many of the chief tenants (but not the landlords) are making considerable profits. The cost of land and post-war building is such that floor rents of post-war tenements are necessarily high and they are further inflated by sub-division as described above. The pressure of population is so great that a family which is unable to afford a rent of more than $100 a month is obliged to rent a cubicle in one of these buildings.

5. The Housing Authority seeks to provide good, self-contained accommodation for families who can afford from $40 to $150 a month and who would otherwise have no alternative but to rent a single room or cubicle in an overcrowded tenement floor.

6. At the end of 1958 the population was estimated to be 2,806,000, but it will not be possible to obtain an exact figure until the census is taken in 1961. The natural increase of population in 1958 was 86,070, and to this must be added over 43,000 for recorded immigration. There is still a good deal of illegal immigration which it is impossible to record.

7. The legal minimum of living space in Hong Kong is only 35 sq. ft. per adult, but it is impossible to enforce even this standard, and in the worst slum districts the average space per person falls to about 15 sq. ft. Densities of 2,000 to the acre are common in the central areas, and this can be compared with a maximum allowable density of 200 persons per acre in the County of London Plan. With a population which is expanding at the rate of approximately 128,000

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