still remains however the problem of the resettlement of small factories and workshops using power-driven machinery, the proprietors of which cannot afford to buy land. The Govern- ment has therefore decided to erect on a site near Li Cheng Uk a large 5-storey building with 93,000 sq. ft. of floor space for the resettlement of squatter factories and workshops of this kind. If this pilot project proves a success similar factory buildings will be erected near other multi-storey estates. By the end of the year the piling contract had been let and the building should be completed in October 1957.
27. Finally, there has been the agreement of the Director of Education that the rooftops of multi-storey buildings may be used for school purposes. The penthouses at either end are enclosed for class-room purposes and the open space between the penthouses becomes the school playground. By the end of the year eleven such schools had been started, in addition to twenty-one boys' and girls' clubs on other rooftops.
28. Succeeding chapters will describe in more detail the operations of the Department and the progress so far made in the solution of Hong Kong's unusual squatter problem.
CHAPTER III
HOW A SQUATTER AREA IS CLEARED
29. The vast squatter colonies which existed in 1953, particularly in the Shamshuipo and Cheungshawan districts of Kowloon, the population of some of which exceeded 80,000 persons, have now almost gone. The remaining areas consist either of groups of wooden huts perched precariously on steep slopes which are unsuitable for almost any form of multi-storey building or of conglomerations of structures of all types in- cluding brick or stone houses, workshops and factories. Some of these structures have been erected on private agricultural land without the necessary permission from the Building Authority and in breach of the Crown lease conditions which restrict the use of such land to agriculture.
30. Although the remaining squatter areas are comparatively small they are still very numerous and their total population is estimated at about 265,000. The smaller wooden huts of 100 sq. ft. or less will probably have been built by the occupiers
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