empower a competent authority to clear squatters and unlawful struc- tures from Crown land, and confer certain powers upon him in respect of Crown land held on lease or permit. Under this part of the Ordinance the Commissioner for Resettlement is a competent authority and exer- cises his powers in the Urban Areas (including New Kowloon) and Tsuen Wan; for the rest of the New Territories (except New Kowloon) the District Commissioner acts as competent authority, while the General Manager of the Kowloon-Canton Railway is the competent authority for railway land. Part III deals with the screening of persons before resettle- ment, the Commissioner for Resettlement being the competent authority for the whole Colony. Parts IV and V are concerned respectively with the letting and management of resettlement estates and resettlement fac- tory arcas, and of cottage resettlement areas. The competent authorities for these sections are the Commissioner for Resettlement in respect of the New Territories, and the Urban Council for Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon. Part VA deals with the occupation of Crown land by homeless persons and certain others, that is, with licensed areas. Appendix 2 summarizes the provisions of each part of the Ordinance and the competent authorities exercising powers under them in the various parts of the Colony.
23. The main amendment to the Resettlement Ordinance during the year, concerning the installation of circuit-breakers in factories, has already been mentioned in paragraph 19. The need for this legislation was brought about because frequent breakdowns in the supply of electri- city to resettlement factory buildings, due to the overloading of electricity supply to individual factory premises, had given rise to serious problems of maintenance and was disrupting production. These problems had arisen because of the need to build factory blocks and instal the electrical supply without prior knowledge of the size and type of under- takings that will occupy them; the subsequent conversion by tenants of manually operated machines to electrically operated ones; after resettle- ment, the installation of more powerful machinery using more electricity; and poor private electrical installations and wiring. The cumulative effect of overloading the supply in some blocks had led to frequent break- downs affecting an entire floor or even a block.
24. At the same time, the opportunity was taken to make a number of other amendments to the Resettlement Ordinance and Regulations. The more important of these put beyond doubt the competent authority's power to enter into any contract and receive or pay out any sum or
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