Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1955-1956 — Page 49

93. The figures for evictions are of interest in that in spite of a considerable increase in the total population of the estates the number of evictions necessary showed a noticeable decline during the last five months of the year for which the total was 20 as against the total of 77 in the first seven months. Of this total of 97 evictions, 40 were for non-payment of rent, 17 for transfer of premises, 33 for dealing in heroin or opium, and 7 for other breaches of the permit conditions.

94. The conditions of the occupation permits provide for cancellation as soon as the monthly rent is more than 14 days in arrears. The policy however is not to evict unless either the rent is more than 28 days in arrears or the permittee is persistently late in making his rent payments. When therefore a permittee's rent payments have been more than 14 days late on four separate occasions a final warning in writing is usually issued to the effect that if at any time in the future the rent has not been paid within 14 days of the due date the permit will be cancelled. Such warnings nearly always result in prompt payments in future.

95. It should perhaps here be explained that the rooms in any one block in an estate have the same due date for rent payments but a different date from those in other blocks. Rent payments at the estate rent office are thus spread out over the whole month. The fact that all the rooms in any one block have the same due date also makes it easier for the estate staff to remind settlers when payments are due and to shepherd them along to the rent office. The attention paid by the estate staff to training the settlers to pay their rents promptly has produced results which may be regarded as not unsatisfactory. Out of a total of $2,136,495 due in rents for the financial year 1955/56 only $1,708 had to be written off as irrecoverable arrears.

96. The Urban Council is kept in close touch with the problems of the estates through its Resettlement Estates Select Committee which meets regularly in Kowloon, each meeting being normally preceded by a visit to an estate. This close personal contact between the Members of the Council and the estates is of great assistance to the estate staff. The subjects with which this Committee deals are of great variety and include

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