Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1962-1963 — Page 7

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

(a) The Problem

HONG KONG in an area of only 400 sq. miles, most of which is steep rocky hillside and much of which consists of inaccessible islands, accommodates a population considerably larger than that of New Zealand. The Government has therefore had to employ exceptional tactics in dealing with the housing needs of the people, whose numbers have been augmented by high natural increase and legal and illegal immigration. The pressure of numbers has brought attendant problems in the shape of services and amenities and, due to the lack of any sizable river, the maintenance of water supplies has always been in the forefront of the Colony's needs. It is appropriate to turn back the pages of history to the reoccupation in 1945 when 600,000 hungry and bewildered residents greeted the relieving forces. Between August 1945 and April 1950 the population is thought to have quadrupled. The great influx of people led, of course, to a corresponding shortage of schools, hospitals and all the other amenities which are essential for a civilized community. All these buildings need land, and land is what Hong Kong lacks. A vicious circle was created: the people poured in; they needed homes, but could not obtain these by ordinary legal methods: they therefore occupied any open land which they could find and covered it with squatter shacks; this in turn aggravated the land shortage, since wherever new buildings were planned it was found that their intended sites were occupied by squatters.

(b) The Resettlement Department

2. It was to meet this need that in April 1954 the Resettlement Department was created. Its main functions can be summed up under three heads to prevent any further land being occupied by squatters; to clear existing squatters from land required for development; and to plan, maintain and administer the buildings into which these squatters are cleared. These three activities are described in more detail in the later chapters of this report.

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