opportunity for welfare work of all descriptions. Apart from the many activities already in operation, the department receives applications all the year round from welfare organizations and missionary societies for the allocation of more accommodation in which to carry out a variety of projects in estates.
68. In the cottage areas, voluntary agencies have built schools and welfare centres on sites provided by the department for which they pay a nominal fee of $2.50 per quarter for each site allocated. The activities. of various bodies in the Ngau Tau Kok Cottage Resettlement Area are typical of those to be found throughout these arcas. This large cottage area, constructed mainly between 1952 and 1956, now has an authorized population of some 8,400 persons (over 1,550 families) occupying 1,400 domestic structures. When it first opened, it was very much on the outskirts of town, but with the development of New Kowloon over the past ten years the surrounding area has become densely populated. Here the main social and educational work is in the hands of the Maryknoll Mission which runs one primary school in two sessions providing a total of 1,800 places, and also operates a clinic, a handicraft training centre, a welfare centre with a library for small children, a noodle factory and a free meal centre.
69. The educational and welfare activities in this area are typical of those being undertaken elsewhere. By the end of the year the fourteen cottage areas had 33 schools with primary places for 18,859 students, 22 welfare centres, 17 clinics, and 4 boys' and girls' clubs, all operated by voluntary agencies. There were also 8 Kaifong (or District) Welfare Organizations working under the guidance of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.
70. In multi-storey estates the Resettlement Department has no sites to offer to voluntary agencies, and a different policy has evolved. The rooftops of the Mark I and II blocks were specially strengthened and provided with penthouses so that they could be used for boys' and girls' clubs or primary schools. A nominal fee of $1 is charged for the use of a rooftop and school fees are limited to $60 a year per pupil. At the end of the year there were 279 rooftops allocated to schools, 57 to boys' and girls' clubs, 35 for recreation centres and 12 for vocational training centres.
71. By arrangement with the Education and Social Welfare Depart- ments ground floor rooms in selected blocks in the newer Mark II estates
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