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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
He said: Speaking to the second motion, my aim today is to set in motion the machinery to enable this Council to work on the City Hall project without more delay. My purpose is to bring our opinion to bear on the subject and to lend our collective experience to the undertaking from this stage onwards.
I think we should lose no more time in defining our policy for the City Hall and in organizing its administration. I believe we should strive to reflect public opinion through the opportunities offered by our varied interests and many associations. Therefore, in spelling out our policy and in discharging the functions arising from this new responsibility, we would do well to pay earnest attention to the wishes of the enlightened public which may not necessarily be at all times the most articulate.
It is meet and just to recall in this Council the excellent service rendered in this connexion by the many representatives of public and private organizations who formed a committee in 1950 with the Rev. Fr. Thomas Ryan, S.J. as chairman. This group canvassed informed opinion and crystallized local demand for a City Hall. I believe it was also at that time that Government announced its intention of reserving a part of the reclamation in order to build the City Hall. The committee then made representations accordingly.
Many and varied have been the views expressed on this subject in the press through the years. There are those who see no need for such a scheme. There are others who press hard for it. There are still others who advance their special requirements most persuasively. There are even those who do no more than criticize whatever may be proposed.
It is true that Hong Kong is beset with many problems and also that there are other claims of a more urgent nature. It is equally true that we as a community have set about in a truly exemplary manner to better the lot of the people who have come here in their thousands to live with us. Possibly we may have done so at some sacrifice of the measured development of our civic, welfare and other institutions.
Now, it may be argued, we can well afford to take stock of the whole situation. Have we not, as a community, become purblind to our own needs and in a way neglected certain aspects of our communal development? Have we not perhaps relegated to too low an order some of our own plans for the general progress of the community because there are other pressing problems with strong political as well as humane connotations commanding our attention?
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The time has come, it is thought, for Hong Kong to have the City Hall which Government will soon be building. The need for it has been felt by many no doubt for different reasons.
Not only do we want one, it may be assumed, for civic and cultural pursuits, but also, for sure, to attract to Hong Kong the meetings and conferences now held elsewhere in Asia which bring in their wake some material benefit to the community, to say the least.
In passing, Mr. Chairman, I cannot restrain myself from wondering for just a minute and in a stage whisper whether in practice we are actually putting up a city hall. Having visited many in widely different parts of the world, I suspect in all candour, although I may be wrong and my opinion controversial, that ours is intended to be more an ambitious cultural centre or a modern combined civic centre in miniature. Is it too late for me to ask pianissimo whether it is not feasible to enlarge its scope to make it also a city hall in effect as well as one in name only?
Far be it for me to suggest that on this account we retard the construction of the buildings. By all means, let us move on without let or hindrance.
My elders tell me, Mr. Chairman, that giving the community a city hall is really honouring a promise long made. I believe that Hong Kong will eventually feel much gratified by the form in which the pledge will be redeemed because, all things considered, the projected City Hall will, I think, do us proud.
MR. WATSON seconded.
He said: Mr. Chairman, the proposition that this Council should form a select committee to discuss its policy with regard to the new City Hall will, I am sure, be supported and carried with little or no opposition and in seconding the motion there is therefore little need for me to enlarge on the merits of such action.
It is appropriate that this Council should be entrusted with the administration of this group of buildings, for among its unofficial members, I find that five of them were members of the original City Hall Committee to which Mr. Sales has referred. This was
Page 99 of 139
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...
Page 99 of 139
Page 98 of 139
176
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
He said: Speaking to the second motion, my aim today is to set in motion the machinery to enable this Council to work on the City Hall project without more delay. My purpose is to bring our opinion to bear on the subject and to lend our collective experience to the undertaking from this stage onwards.
I think we should lose no more time in defining our policy for the City Hall and in organizing its administration. I believe we should strive to reflect public opinion through the opportunities offered by our varied interests and many associations. Therefore, in spelling out our policy and in discharging the functions arising from this new responsibility, we would do well to pay earnest attention to the wishes of the enlightened public which may not necessarily be at all times the most articulate.
It is meet and just to recall in this Council the excellent service rendered in this connexion by the many representatives of public and private organizations who formed a committee in 1950 with the Rev. Fr. Thomas Ryan, S.J. as chairman. This group canvassed informed opinion and crystallized local demand for a City Hall. I believe it was also at that time that Government announced its intention of reserving a part of the reclamation in order to build the City Hall. The committee then made representations accordingly.
Many and varied have been the views expressed on this sub- ject in the press through the years. There are those who see no need for such a scheme. There are others who press hard for it. There are still others who advance their special requirements most persuasively. There are even those who do no more than criticize whatever may be proposed.
It is true that Hong Kong is beset with many problems and also that there are other claims of a more urgent nature. It is equally true that we as a community have set about in a truly exemplary manner to better the lot of the people who have come here in their thousands to live with us. Possibly we may have done so at some sacrifice of the measured development of our civic, welfare and other institutions.
Now, it may be argued, we can well afford to take stock of the whole situation. Have we not, as a community, become purblind to our own needs and in a way neglected certain aspects of our communal development? Have we not perhaps relegated to too
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
177
low an order some of our own plans for the general progress of the community because there are other pressing problems with strong political as well as humane connotations commanding our attention?
The time has come, it is thought, for Hong Kong to have the City Hall which Government will soon be building. The need for it has been felt by many no doubt for different reasons.
Not only do we want one, it may be assumed, for civic and cultural pursuits, but also, for sure, to attract to Hong Kong the meetings and con- ferences now held elsewhere in Asia which bring in their wake some material benefit to the community, to say the least.
In passing, Mr. Chairman, I cannot restrain myself from wondering for just a minute and in a stage whisper whether in practice we are actually putting up a city hall. Having visited many in widely different parts of the world, I suspect in all candour, although I may be wrong and my opinion controversial, that ours is intended to be more an ambitious cultural centre or a modern combined civic centre in miniature. Is it too late for me to ask pianissimo whether it is not feasible to enlarge its scope to make it also a city hall in effect as well as one in name only?
Far be it for me to suggest that on this account we retard the construction of the buildings. By all means, let us move on without let or hindrance.
My elders tell me, Mr. Chairman, that giving the community a city hall is really honouring a promise long made. I believe that Hong Kong will eventually feel much gratified by the form in which the pledge will be redeemed because, all things consider- ed, the projected City Hall will, I think, do us proud.
MR. WATSON seconded.
He said: Mr. Chairman, the proposition that this Council should form a select committee to discuss its policy with regard to the new City Hall will, I am sure, be supported and carried with little or no opposition and in seconding the motion there is there- fore little need for me to enlarge on the merits of such action.
It is appropriate that this Council should be entrusted with the administration of this group of buildings, for among its unofficial members, I find that five of them were members of the original City Hall Committee to which Mr. Sales has referred. This was
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