Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1955-1956 — Page 51

evictions, heroin cases, applications from voluntary agencies for roof playgrounds or rooms, matters connected with the health and welfare of the settlers, and the hundred and one problems which must arise when very large numbers of people have to live together at such close quarters.

97. The work of administering the estates is to some extent welfare work but much more is needed than can be accomplished by the administrative staff. For this reason voluntary agencies are encouraged by the Social Welfare Office to undertake welfare work of all kinds in the estates and these agencies may either rent rooms for their activities at the normal rate of $14 a month for a single room or may have the free use of large roof playgrounds, with large penthouses at either end, for running boys' and girls' clubs. Thirteen such clubs are now being conducted by the Social Welfare Office, the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association, the Salvation Army, the Assemblies of God Mission, the Oriental Missionary Society, the Christian Assembly, the Church of Christ in China, the Western China Evangelistic Band and the Christian Mission to Buddhists. Other welfare agencies doing valuable work in the estates are the Hong Kong Family Welfare Society, the Church World Service, the Family Planning Association and the Shek Kip Mei Kaifong Welfare Association. The opportunities for welfare work presented by estates with populations ranging from 37,000 to 54,000 are as obvious as the need is great and it is hoped that the coming year will see a great increase in such activities.

98. The administrative problems of the Cottage Areas are similar to those of the multi-storey estates in that the most important part of the Area Officer's work is the training of the settlers in good citizenship. These areas have already been described in a previous chapter as normally consisting of terraces of one-storey buildings, often on steep hillsides which cannot be densely developed. The number of persons per acre will vary considerably from one area to another but the average is about 400 as against an average at present of about 2,000 persons to the acre in the multi-storey estates. Although this is not an entirely fair comparison, since much of the land in a cottage area will consist of steep and unusable banks, it is none

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