HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MINUTES.
The Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 7th January, 1958, were confirmed.
PAPERS.
THE CHAIRMAN laid upon the table the following papers:-
(1) Report on the work of the Urban Council and Urban Services Department for the month of January, 1958.
(2) Urban Council and Urban Services Department Statistical Report for the period 1st October, 1957 to 31st December, 1957.
(3) Report by the Commissioner for Resettlement on the progress of clearance and resettlement operations during the period 1st October, 1957 to 31st December, 1957.
(4) Report on Hawkers with policy recommendations.
(5) Analysis of the recommendations of the Estimates Select Committee on the staffing requirements of the Urban Services and Resettlement Departments for the financial year 1958/59.
He said:
Two of these papers are of special interest, and perhaps I may briefly refer to them.
The first is the Hawker Report, the presentation of which has been for some time foreshadowed, but which has only just been printed. This important paper comes to the Council with the unanimous support of the Hawkers (Policy) Select Committee and also with the approval of the Commissioner of Police. The report has already been submitted to the Government but has not of course yet been considered in detail or approved by the Government. The keynote of these proposals is control—sensible and practical and sympathetic control designed to benefit the hawkers themselves, the market stallholders and the general public, designed in fact to benefit all concerned except those few who seek to turn the present confusion to their own ends and to prey on the hawkers by methods with which this Council can have no sympathy. It is fortunate and timely that our latest monthly Progress Report, also tabled today, contains an account
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of our latest experiment with the new methods of control which, if the Report is accepted, we hope gradually to extend throughout the urban area. Members will note that in two nights last month our staff removed from half a mile of busy city streets thirteen truck-loads of miscellaneous refuse and rubbish and ten truck-loads of granite and concrete blocks. I think comment is superfluous.
It is proposed that this Hawker Report should be debated at the next meeting, that is to say the March meeting to be held 4 weeks from today, by which time it is hoped that public reactions and comments will be available. The report has been released to the press and is now on sale to the public. I am sure members will agree when I say that we shall all of us welcome and pay careful attention to any comments or criticisms or suggestions which the press, or interested public bodies, or individual members of the public may care to put forward. So much for the Hawker Report.
The second paper to which I think I should draw your attention is the Annual Analysis of Proposed Staff Increases. In accordance with the now established convention of this Council any member who wishes to do so is now free to speak on general questions related to the department's establishment.
ANNUAL DEBATE ON THE ESTIMATES.
DR. R. H. S. LEE:- Mr. Chairman, although staffing requirement is an uninteresting subject, it is nevertheless an essential one. If we have inadequate staff it becomes impossible to carry out the Council's policies: on the other hand, if staff increases be unjustified not only is the tax-payer's money unnecessarily squandered, but the machine actually becomes unwieldy and inefficient. If for no other reason than this, Mr. Chairman, the Estimates Select Committee renders important and useful service to this Council in vetting both the staff requirements and the estimates of the Council's new and recurrent expenditures.
Sir, in the matter of health standards in the urban area, we are still far from being satisfied. Although the Colony has been spared any major epidemic there are still raging endemics of serious proportion in our midst. We are faced with the problems and also the habits of the people. Until we solve the congested
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164
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MINUTES.
The Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 7th January, 1958, were confirmed.
PAPERS.
THE CHAIRMAN laid upon the table the following papers:-
(1) Report on the work of the Urban Council and Urban Services Department for the month of January, 1958.
(2) Urban Council and Urban Services Department Statistical Report for the period 1st October, 1957 to 31st December, 1957.
(3) Report by the Commissioner for Resettlement on the progress of clearance and resettlement opera- tions during the period 1st October, 1957 to 31st December, 1957.
(4)
(5)
He said:
Report on Hawkers with policy recommendations. Analysis of the recommendations of the Estimates Select Committee on the staffing requirements of the Urban Services and Resettlement Depart- ments for the financial year 1958/59.
Two of these papers are of special interest, and perhaps I may briefly refer to them.
The first is the Hawker Report, the presentation of which has been for some time foreshadowed, but which has only just been printed. This important paper comes to the Council with the unanimous support of the Hawkers (Policy) Select Committee and also with the approval of the Commissioner of Police. The report has already been submitted to the Government but has not of course yet been considered in detail or approved by the Government. The keynote of these proposals is control-sensible and practical and sympathetic control designed to benefit the hawkers themselves, the market stallholders and the general public, designed in fact to benefit all concerned except those few who seek to turn the present confusion to their own ends and to prey on the hawkers by methods with which this Council can have no sympathy. It is fortunate and timely that our latest monthly Progress Report, also tabled today, contains an account
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
165
of our latest experiment with the new methods of control which, if the Report is accepted, we hope gradually to extend through- out the urban area. Members will note that in two nights last month our staff removed from half a mile of busy city streets thirteen truck-loads of miscellaneous refuse and rubbish and ten truck-loads of granite and concrete blocks. I think comment is superfluous.
It is proposed that this Hawker Report should be debated at the next meeting, that is to say the March meeting to be held 4 weeks from today, by which time it is hoped that public reactions and comments will be available. The report has been released to the press and is now on sale to the public. I am sure members will agree when I say that we shall all of us wel- come and pay careful attention to any comments or criticisms or suggestions which the press, or interested public bodies, or individual members of the public may care to put forward. So much for the Hawker Report.
The second paper to which I think I should draw your attention is the Annual Analysis of Proposed Staff Increases. In accordance with the now established convention of this Council any member who wishes to do so is now free to speak on general questions related to the department's establishment.
ANNUAL DEBATE ON THE ESTIMATES.
DR. R. H. S. LEE:-Mr. Chairman, although staffing requirement is an uninteresting subject, it is nevertheless an essential one. If we have inadequate staff it becomes impossible to carry out the Council's policies: on the other hand, if staff increases be unjustified not only is the tax-payer's money un- necessarily squandered, but the machine actually becomes un- wieldy and inefficient. If for no other reason than this, Mr. Chairman, the Estimates Select Committee renders important and useful service to this Council in vetting both the staff require- ments and the estimates of the Council's new and recurrent expenditures.
Sir, in the matter of health standards in the urban area, we are still far from being satisfied. Although the Colony has been spared any major epidemic there are still raging endemics of serious proportion in our midst. We are faced with the problems and also the habits of the people. Until we solve the congested
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