new switches. The section was also responsible for providing public lighting in two cottage areas and four of the department's transit camps, as well as the installation of 25 electrical supply points for public televi- sion sets to be installed at various estate playgrounds.
CHAPTER 9
FINANCE
133. Settlers in cottage areas pay quarterly permit fees for the sites they occupy. The amount is laid down in the Resettlement Regulations, and varies according to the size of the site and the location of the arca; for a typical site of 160 square feet the permit fee is $5 a quarter in outlying areas and $15 a quarter in the more central areas. If the permittee does not own the premises he is living in, he also pays rent either to the Govern- ment or to a welfare agency, or a hire-purchase instalment to a private owner. Rents for Government-owned cottages are $10 or $15 a month according to location.
134. The Government's policy in fixing rents in domestic estates is to recover the original capital cost (including an assumed figure of $14 per square foot for land including site formation, piling and engineering costs, but excluding land to be occupied by schools, playgrounds, roads, etc.), amortized over 40 years at a rate of 34% compound interest a year, plus all annually recurrent expenditure including the cost of administra- tion and maintenance. Rents are worked out in respect of a particular Mark of block, on the basis of contract prices for the earliest ones to be constructed, and apply to all blocks of that Mark irrespective of location and date of construction. They are liable to revision from time to time to meet rising costs of maintenance and management. Except where the rateable value of the accommodation is below the minimum at which rates are charged there is an additional element for rates which is collected with the rent. This amounts to about 17% of the rateable value in urban areas and 11% in the New Territories. A further charge is made for water, varying according to the size of the room, except in the later Mark IV domestic rooms, restaurants, factories and certain types of shops where individual meters have been installed and the tenant pays according to the amount of water consumed. The all-in monthly charge for the tenant of a standard room of 129 square feet plus a balcony in a Mark IV block in the urban areas is $26 for rent, $6 for rates and $3 for water (unless metered), a total of $35. Rents in Mark I and II
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