Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1960-1961 — Page 15

34. The many attractive cottages now to be seen in the resettlement areas are largely the work of charitable and non-profit making organiza- tions. In September 1952 the Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation was set up, financed partly by Government and partly by private sub- scription; it built over 1,500 cottages which were sold to settlers by hire-purchase, the instalments being either $20 or $35 a month depending on the size of the cottage. The National Catholic Welfare Conference have built 2,744 stone cottages. The title to these cottages has been transferred to Government and they have been administered as Govern- ment-owned cottages. The Methodist Board of Missions have built 280 cottages which are administered by the Methodists themselves under the supervision of Resettlement Department staff. Church World Service have built 516 cottages, which are administered in the same way as the Methodist cottages. A further 726 cottages, built in small groups by various other charitable organizations, have been donated to settlers.

35. A new resettlement area at Shui Ngau Ling near Yuen Long in the New Territories was completed in March 1961. The Belgian Govern- ment donated funds for the construction of 197 stone cottages. The cottages have been occupied by 189 families comprising 959 persons from the nearby Tai Pei Tau squatter area, which is liable to flooding.

36. Attractive though many of the cottages are, Hong Kong can unfortunately no longer spare the land for this type of development, at least in the urban areas. The cottage areas are also uneconomic since the cost of building and maintaining terraces and paths is dispropor- tionate to the value of the cottages themselves and is greater than can reasonably be recovered from the settlers in rents and permit fees. For these reasons new building has been reduced to a minimum and only 238 new cottages were built during the year in the urban area. Most of these cottages were allocated to settlers who had previously been living in wooden huts, 704 persons being provided for in this way. Existing cottage areas are now gradually being cleared to make way for more intensive development. Six cottages were cleared during the year at Healthy Village to make way for Fire Services Department quarters; at the end of the year notices had been served to the occupants of 1,187 further cottages at Healthy Village, at Ho Man Tin, and at Tai Wo Hau near Tsuen Wan in the New Territories. At Tai Wo Hau the site will be used for multi-storey resettlement blocks and at Healthy Village it will be used for an extension to the Housing Society Estate and for Police Rank and File quarters.

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