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annual revenue and annual recurrent expenditure much time and thought was given both by the members of the Resettlement Policy Select Committee of the Urban Council and by the staff of the department to the problem of devising a new scale of fees which would increase revenue without causing hardship to the poorer settlers. The new schedule of fees finally approved by the Urban Council and the Legislative Council will increase the annual revenue from permit fees to about $1 million a year and came into force on the 1st April, 1956.
103. These quarterly permit fees are payable for each cottage site, the amount of the fee depending upon the area of the site. During the year under review 24,378 demand notes for permit fees were issued and the volume of work involved in the preparation and issue of these notes was clearly dis- proportionate to the amount of revenue collected. A scheme for the collection of permit fees by mobile collecting units which would dispense with the necessity for demand notes was there- fore prepared and this came into operation at the same time as the new scale of permit fees.
104. The changes in the rates and method of collection of permit fees necessitated much preparatory work on records. Each of the 12,816 sites in resettlement areas was re-measured and the measurement endorsed on the Resettlement Area Permit. Letters were issued to the heads of households giving the reasons for permit fee increases and details of the new collection system which was to be introduced. At the end of the year only 215 permit fees remained outstanding out of 51,200 payable in the year under review. Revenue from permit fees totalled $446,464.
105. As an economy measure the number of staff employed on sanitary duties (e.g. scavenging, rodent control, latrine cleansing) was reduced during the year. In order to maintain the sanitation service at its existing level experiments were made in alternative methods of working to promote greater efficiency. Efforts were also made to induce settlers to play a larger part in keeping the areas around their premises clean. In areas such as Fu Tau Wat where it is difficult to remove garbage because there is no lorry access, incinerators were built. Septic tank latrines, technically known as aqua-privies, were provided in Ngau Tau Kok and Homantin, and in Chuk Yuen
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