underwent considerable expansion during the year and the total estab- lishment has increased from 4,278 to 4,712. Proposals for improving the quality of staff by means of a training programme allied to more attractive conditions of service are about to be implemented.
16. Unfortunately, the record building achievements of the previous year have not been maintained. This was partly due to the transition from eight to sixteen storey blocks which naturally take longer to build. The banking crisis early in 1965 left some contractors short of liquid capital, which delayed the completion of some blocks under construction, and there have been difficulties in the forming of some hilly sites. Despite these handicaps, 21 eight-storey and 13 sixteen- storey blocks were taken over from the Public Works Department during the year bringing the number managed by the department to 388 in eighteen estates. In addition, 6 new factory blocks each of 7 storeys (the previous blocks being only 5 storeys), were taken over providing an additional 592,128 sq. ft. of nett working space for small squatter industrial undertakings in units of 256 sq. ft. or multiples thereof.
17. Allowing for deaths and people moving out of estates, amount- ing only to a little under 1% of the total estate population, the year has shown a nett increase of nearly 90,000 people in estates. In round figures, 20,000 new residents came from dangerous buildings by way of the Rent Advance Scheme; another 52,000 were resettled from areas required for development, nearly 23,000 were additions of relatives and new born children to families already in the estates and 2,000 were resettled on compassionate grounds. Deaths and other losses amounted to about 7,000. These figures reflect a growing commitment to provide a high proportion of new accommodation for the relief of overcrowding and during the year nearly 19,000 people were moved to larger rooms. Appendix I shows the authorized population of each estate and cottage area at the end of the year under review.
18. Immigration into Hong Kong, which was at its flood in the summer of 1962, has now subsided to a trickle and there are signs. that the natural increase in population has fallen to a rate of 22.3 per thousand. Aided by more cfficient measures to prevent illegal squat- ting, the number of new structures is declining. Reduced immigration and tenement demolition for redevelopment has, for the first time for several years, resulted in a decline in new squatting and the gross increase in the squatter population over the last year has fallen well below the previous rate of about 100,000 a year; there was even a
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