Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1956-1957 — Page 34

425 were retail shops of many kinds for which no licence is required.

64. It is the responsibility of the estate staff to see that the conditions of all occupation permits are observed. These are made as simple as possible, the most important being those requiring that the rent be paid in advance each month within 14 days of the due date, that the permittee may not transfer his room to any other person or sub-let any part of it, and that he must not allow the commission in his room of any offence against the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. For workshops there will be additional special conditions and for restaurants, cafes and food shops there will be the Urban Council licence conditions.

65. If the conditions of a permit are not being observed verbal warnings are given by the staff and these are followed, if necessary, by preliminary and final warning letters. In most cases these warnings are effective but if no notice is taken of final written warnings it becomes necessary to revoke the permit whereupon the permittee and his family must vacate the premises. So far as rent payments are concerned, although the conditions of the occupation permit provide for cancellation as soon as the monthly rent is more than 14 days in arrears the policy is not to do so unless either the rent is more than 28 days in arrears or the permittee is persistently more than 14 days late in making his rent payments in spite of warnings on the matter. The number of permits which had to be cancelled during the year was 113, as against a figure of 247 for the previous year. 89 were cancelled for non-payment of rent, 15 for unauthorized transfers, and 9 for trafficking in heroin or opium.

66. In order to spread out rent collections over the whole month each estate is divided into sections, each of which has a different due date. If for example the due date for a section is the 12th the rent paid on that date will be for the month ending on the 12th of the following month. The fact that all the rooms in each section have the same due date also makes it easier for the estate staff to remind settlers when payments are due. The regular and constant attention paid by the staff to this matter has produced results which may be regarded as not unsatisfactory. Out of a total $3,594,525 due in rents for

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