Page 28 of 110
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
is crammed into 12 square miles. It is not so much that land is scarce but that available land cannot be fully used because of poor communications. Since the war we have experienced a tremendous growth in population and in traffic, but there has been no corresponding increase in our roads and railways. The Kowloon-Canton Railway still has the same length of track as prewar, and still runs its one slow train an hour in each direction. The enormous increase in traffic has had to depend entirely on our overburdened road system. In the last ten years the number of registered vehicles has trebled, but the total length of road has only increased by one-fifth, mostly in the New Territories. Last year alone traffic increased by 18% and to cope with it we should have built 90 miles of new roads. Instead we completed one mile in Kowloon, and five miles in the New Territories, a total increase of only 1%.
I suggest that in the planning and the development of the Colony, the forgotten factor has been our communications. At Kwun Tong, land was sold and factories were built years before an adequate road could be provided. Plans are now being made to develop Sha Tin, but the only new route to be provided is through a mile-long tunnel with a 24 foot wide carriageway, barely sufficient for one lane of traffic in either direction. Yet Government has optimistically stated that this route will satisfy the demands of traffic for the next 15 years.
I thoroughly agree with Dr. Raymond LEE's remarks about traffic and the inadequacy of public transport. Or perhaps I should say that I am delighted to find that he agrees with me. The time has undoubtedly come for an overall consideration of traffic and public transport problems, of roads and cross-harbour routes, and of new and swifter means of transport, such as electric railways. It is clear that penalizing private motorists is going to have a negligible effect on the problem, unless our public transport is vastly improved. To prevent the present high density of vehicles on our roads getting any greater, we must build 90 miles of roads every year, preferably in the urban areas. If this is impossible, then we must build an effective rapid transit system which does not use the roads.
At this stage I am convinced that the greatest good Government could do, both for traffic and for housing, would be to replace the Kowloon-Canton Railway between Sha Tin and Tsim Sha Tsui, with a fast, electric underground railway. This could either be part of a comprehensive scheme eventually covering all parts of the Colony. Or it could stand on its own merits alone, by the speed and volume of passengers it could carry, and the relief it would give to the roads of Kowloon and the New Territories. The cost? Perhaps as little as $50 million, equal to ten times the net profit made by the K.C.R. in 1960. And the land on which the present terminal at Tsim Sha Tsui is built is worth about $1,000 a square foot, or $44 million an acre.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
But the most important benefit would be in the field of housing, for it would enable Sha Tin to be developed, not merely as another new town for industry, but as an extremely valuable dormitory town for Kowloon. Only by a vast improvement in public transport, which will enable people to live further away from their work, will we be able to reduce the 4000-to-the-acre densities in our urban slums.
Constitutional Reform: I now come to a subject which has been raised by the elected members, the question of constitutional reform. You will remember that last summer two of them travelled to London to put certain proposals before Her Majesty's Government. The strange thing is that the full details of these proposals have never been made public. The Joint Memorandum which Mr. BERNACCHI has laid on the table does not give the full details of the elected members' proposals. I say that this paper is useless, and I challenge the coalition to put the full memorandum on the table and not this emasculated press release. The Secretary of State was asked to make a decision on something which had not been disclosed to the people of Hong Kong, and on which they had not been allowed to express an opinion. It is not surprising that these proposals were not accepted.
As, however, the elected members still apparently harbour hopes of eventually getting their way, I think it should be made clear that if their suggestions affect the appointed members of the Urban Council, they are not likely to prove acceptable to them.
The secrecy surrounding the original proposals still continues. I have asked for full details, and I have been refused. I understand, however, that the main point is that instead of direct elections to the Legislative Council, there should be indirect elections through the Urban Council.
(Mr. BERNACCHI returned to the meeting at this stage).
If this, in brief, is what they have in mind, then those members of the Urban Council who are not members of the coalition should have been asked their views on it. We believe that there is no advantage in this indirect approach, that the work we have been appointed or elected to do might be seriously affected by political manoeuvring. It is no part of our duty to act as an electoral college. If we were forced to vote, we would be forced to vote for the candidate who received most votes in the previous Urban Council election, for who are we to query the judgement of the electorate?
We know and respect the elected members, with whom most of us have worked for many years. I myself would be happy to have them serve on the Legislative Council, if they were willing to accept appointment to it. But unfortunately Mr. BERNACCHI has said that neither he nor the other elected members would accept appointment,
Page 28 of 110
1
41
Page 28 of 110
1
40
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
is crammed into 12 square miles. It is not so much that land is scarce but that available land cannot be fully used because of poor communi- cations. Since the war we have experienced a tremendous growth in population and in traffic, but there has been no corresponding increase in our roads and railways. The Kowloon-Canton Railway still has the same length of track as prewar, and still runs its one slow train an hour in each direction. The enormous increase in traffic has had to depend entirely on our overburdened road system. In the last ten years the number of registered vehicles has trebled, but the total length of road has only increased by one-fifth, mostly in the New Territories. Last year alone traffic increased by 18% and to cope with it we should have built 90 miles of new roads. Instead we completed one mile in Kowloon, and five miles in the New Territories, a total increase of only 1%.
I suggest that in the planning and the development of the Colony, the forgotten factor has been our communications. At Kwun Tong, land was sold and factories were built years before an adequate road could be provided. Plans are now being made to develop Sha Tin, but the only new route to be provided is through a mile-long tunnel with a 24 foot wide carriageway, barely sufficient for one lane of traffic in either direction. Yet Government has optimistically stated that this route will satisfy the demands of traffic for the next 15 years.
I thoroughly agree with Dr. Raymond LEE's remarks about traffic and the inadequacy of public transport. Or perhaps I should say that I am delighted to find that he agrees with me. The time has undoubtedly come for an overall consideration of traffic and public transport problems, of roads and cross-harbour routes, and of new and swifter means of transport, such as electric railways. It is clear that penalizing private motorists is going to have a negligible effect on the problem, unless our public transport is vastly improved. To prevent the present high density of vehicles on our roads getting any greater, we must build 90 miles of roads every year, preferably in the urban areas. If this is impossible, then we must build an effective rapid transit system which does not use the roads.
At this stage I am convinced that the greatest good Government could do, both for traffic and for housing, would be to replace the Kowloon-Canton Railway between Sha Tin and Tsim Sha Tsui, with a fast, electric under-ground railway. This could either be part of a comprehensive scheme eventually covering all parts of the Colony. Or it could stand on its own merits alone, by the speed and volume of passengers it could carry, and the relief it would give to the roads of Kowloon and the New Territories. The cost? Perhaps as little as $50 million, equal to ten times the net profit made by the K.C.R. in 1960. And the land on which the present terminal at Tsim Sha Tsui is built is worth about $1.000 a square foot, or $44 million an acre.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
41
But the most important benefit would be in the field of housing, for it would enable Sha Tin to be developed, not merely as another new town for industry, but as an extremely valuable dormitory town for Kowloon. Only by a vast improvement in public transport, which will enable people to live further away from their work, will we be able to reduce the 4000-to-the-acre densities in our urban slums.
Constitutional Reform: I now come to a subject which has been raised by the elected members, the question of constitutional reform. You will remember that last summer two of them travelled to London to put certain proposals before Her Majesty's Government. The strange thing is that the full details of these proposals have never been made public. The Joint Memorandum which Mr. BERNACCHI has laid on the table does not give the full details of the elected members' proposals. I say that this paper is useless, and I challenge the coalition to put the full memorandum on the table and not this emasculated press release. The Secretary of State was asked to make a decision on something which had not been disclosed to the people of Hong Kong, and on which they had not been allowed to express an opinion. It is not surprising that these proposals were not accepted.
As, however, the elected members still apparently harbour hopes of eventually getting their way, I think it should be made clear that if their suggestions affect the appointed members of the Urban Council, they are not likely to prove acceptable to them.
I
The secrecy surrounding the original proposals still continue. have asked for full details, and I have been refused. I understand, however, that the main point is that instead of direct elections to the Legislative Council, there should be indirect elections through the Urban Council.
(Mr. BERNACCHI returned to the meeting at this stage).
If this, in brief, is what they have in mind, then those members of the Urban Council who are not members of the coalition should have been asked their views on it. We believe that there is no advan- tage in this indirect approach, that the work we have been appointed or elected to do might be seriously affected by political manoeuvring. It is no part of our duty to act as an electoral college. If we were forced to vote, we would be forced to vote for the candidate who received most votes in the previous Urban Council election, for who are we to query the judgement of the electorate?
We know and respect the elected members, with whom most of us have worked for many years. I myself would be happy to have them serve on the Legislative Council, if they were willing to accept appointment to it. But unfortunately Mr. BERNACCHI has said that neither he nor the other elected members would accept appointment,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.