they earned their living in occupations which are carried on in the developed urban area. However, after some initial hesitation the clearance proceeded smoothly and without incident.
19. The department's work was affected by heavy rains in June and by a prolonged dry spell from October until March. In June 409 squatter huts were damaged beyond repair or destroyed by landslides or falling boulders and new, and less dangerous sites were found and allocated to the occupants. Considerable damage was also caused to cottages and to terraces and paths in the cottage areas, while some damage was caused in the estates by landslides and by silt washed down from hillsides in the vicinity. The damage was worst at Shek Kip Mei Estate where 85 families were moved from Block H, which was threatened by further landslides, and transferred to Li Cheng Uk Estate. The rains were also responsible for the collapse of a number of old tenement buildings in Hong Kong and Kowloon. Those who lost their homes were offered sites in the department's 'resite areas', on which to build temporary huts. The dry weather in the autumn and winter led to an increased number of tenement and squatter fires and 12,788 persons who were made homeless as a result were offered alternative sites, either on the fire site itself or in resite areas.
20. A major landmark in the progress of resettlement was the com- pletion of the 100th multi-storey resettlement block to be built since. the building programme was begun in 1954. This block, Block L at Wong Tai Sin Estate, was declared open by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, Mr. Claude BURGESS, C.M.G., O.B.E. on 26th November, 1959. In his address, Mr. BURGESS stressed that while the completion of a hundred resettlement blocks represented material progress in the attack on the squatter problem it would still need considerable effort and the construction of many more such blocks before the problem was solved.
21. This warning was underlined by the results of the survey of ground squatters completed in November 1959, the first comprehensive survey to be undertaken since 1955. This survey showed that there are still some 500,000 ground squatters remaining, a figure which is mate- rially higher than previous estimates had indicated, and which clearly demonstrates the magnitude of the task that still has to be performed.
22. A more detailed description of the work of the department is given in the succeeding chapters.
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