Page 143 of 194
268
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
It was as far back as 1890 that compulsory attendance at school was first introduced in Japan, and by 1900 a four-year compulsory and free primary education system was operating throughout that country. Today, Japan has nine years of free and compulsory education from the ages of 6 to 15, and there is too a strong emphasis on technical and vocational training.
Although we say we believe that our best asset is to be found in our people, we are nevertheless not doing enough in Hong Kong to develop this asset into a long-term investment for the future. We still have over 100,000 children of primary school age who cannot go to school. Our secondary schools are hopelessly insufficient. And for an industrialized city like Hong Kong that relies upon industrial expansion to maintain a high level of employment, our public funds for education are every year kept too low, purposely low, so that we can end the fiscal year with a whopping budget surplus.
I am willing to wager anyone that history will repeat itself and we will end our fiscal year with another handsome budget surplus—how pleasant and how delightfully surprising this is for the powers-that-be!
Members will forgive me if I speak in blunt terms, Mr. Chairman. But as I have said, this Council is the nearest thing to a House of Representatives, because the Urban Council is the only official body where there are elected representatives of the people. And speaking as an elected Urban Councillor, I will not speak in subterfuge nor will I mince my words. I shall speak only as an elected representative of the people should.
If we really and truly wish Hong Kong to prosper, if we ardently desire that the Hong Kong of the future will have a body of enlightened Hong Kong citizens, it is necessary that we impress upon the Government the need for more funds to be used in expanding our education system.
The Government cannot escape its responsibility to provide an education for all children born in Hong Kong, and I see no reason why the Government of such a rich city-state like Hong Kong cannot make plans to have a seven or eight-year compulsory education system introduced by stages. I would like to see such a Plan formulated and put into force by 1965 if possible.
As a first step, I propose that the Social Welfare Department, under the general direction of this Council, establish and manage a Fund to provide educational allowances to all Hongkong-born children who need such assistance.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
269
At this point, I would like to avail myself of the opportunity to pay a warm tribute to the admirable work done by Mr. S. J. G. BURT when he was Principal of the Technical College. Regrettably, Mr. BURT has left us to join the World Bank in connection with a £2 million loan made by the World Bank to Tanganyika to help that country's education programme.
Water Supply
The people of Hong Kong can be accused of lacking many virtues, but certainly not the virtue of fortitude. For this year, in the midst of the most serious water crisis in the post-war period, Hong Kong's 3.7 million residents have displayed a patience and strength of spirit that is without peer.
And the Government of Hong Kong should be given full marks for its steady handling of a critical situation, and its sympathetic efforts to ease the hardship of our lower-income groups who were more seriously affected by the water shortage.
Yet when all is said and done, this has been a good lesson, for the Government as well as for ourselves. For ourselves to the extent that we have woken up to the realization that we should no longer be content to have an eight-hour-a-day supply of water for the rest of our lives. For the Government the lesson is that it can no longer put too great a reliance upon rainfall as our only source of water supply.
The Government has now appointed a team of consultants to look into the possibility of putting up a distillation plant, and I would like to congratulate the Government for its far-sightedness.
Should any public investment be required later on to build a distillation plant, I suggest that the Government make a further approach to the World Bank, which only last month agreed to lend the Malaysian Government HK$260 million to expand Malaysia's water supply. I shall have more to say about the World Bank in just a while. (Laughter).
Medical Services
Mr. Chairman, before the previous Director of Medical and Health Services left Hong Kong, he affixed his signature to a revised Ten Year Progressive Programme for the development of our medical services.
Despite the fact that this Council is vitally interested in the health and well-being of the community, the Government has not yet deigned to make a copy available to members of this Council.
Page 144 of 194
f 194
Page 143 of 194
268
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
It was as far back as 1890 that compulsory attendance at school was first introduced in Japan, and by 1900 a four-year compulsory and free primary education system was operating throughout that country. Today, Japan has nine years of free and compulsory education from the ages of 6 to 15, and there is too a strong emphasis on technical and vocational training.
Although we say we believe that our best asset is to be found in our people, we are nevertheless not doing enough in Hong Kong to develop this asset into a long-term investment for the future. We still have over 100,000 children of primary school age who cannot go to school. Our secondary schools are hopelessly insufficient. And for an industrialized city like Hong Kong that relies upon industrial expansion to maintain a high level of employment, our public funds for education are every year kept too low, purposely low, so that we can end the fiscal year with a whopping budget surplus.
I am willing to wager anyone that history will repeat itself and we will end our fiscal year with another handsome budget surplus— how pleasant and how delightfully surprising this is for the powers- that-be!
Members will forgive me if I speak in blunt terms Mr. Chairman. But as I have said, this Council is the nearest thing to a House of Representatives, because the Urban Council is the only official body where there are elected representatives of the people. And speaking as an elected Urban Councillor, I will not speak in subterfuge nor will I mince my words. I shall speak only as an elected representative of the people should.
If we really and truly wish Hong Kong to prosper, if we ardently desire that the Hong Kong of the future will have a body of enlightened Hong Kong citizens, it is necessary that we impress upon the Govern- ment the need for more funds to be used in expanding our education system.
The Government cannot escape its responsibility to provide an education for all children born in Hong Kong, and I see no reason why the Government of such a rich city-state like Hong Kong cannot make plans to have a seven or eight-year compulsory education system introduced by stages. I would like to see such a Plan formulated and put into force by 1965 if possible.
As a first step, I propose that the Social Welfare Department, under the general direction of this Council, establish and manage a Fund to provide educational allowances to all Hongkong-born children who need such assistance.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
269
At this point, I would like to avail myself of the opportunity to pay a warm tribute to the admirable work done by Mr. S. J. G. BURT when he was Principal of the Technical College. Regrettably, Mr. BURT has left us to join the World Bank in connection with a £2 million loan made by the World Bank to Tanganyika to help that country's education programme.
Water Supply
The people of Hong Kong can be accused of lacking many virtues, but certainly not the virtue of fortitude. For this year, in the midst of the most serious water crisis in the post-war period, Hong Kong's 3.7 million residents have displayed a patience and strength of spirit that is without peer.
And the Government of Hong Kong should be given full marks for its steady handling of a critical situation, and its sympathetic efforts to ease the hardship of our lower-income groups who were more seriously affected by the water shortage.
Yet when all is said and done, this has been a good lesson, for the Government as well as for ourselves. For ourselves to the extent that we have woken up to the realization that we should no longer be content to have an eight-hour-a-day supply of water for the rest of our lives. For the Government the lesson is that it can no longer put too great a reliance upon rainfall as our only source of water supply.
The Government has now appointed a team of consultants to look into the possibility of putting up a distillation plant, and I would like to congratulate the Government for its far-sightedness.
Should any public investment be required later on to build a distillation plant, I suggest that the Government make a further approach to the World Bank, which only last month agreed to lend the Malaysian Government HK$260 million to expand Malaysia's water supply. I shall have more to say about the World Bank in just a while. (Laughter).
Medical Services
Mr. Chairman, before the previous Director of Medical and Health Services left Hong Kong, he affixed his signature to a revised Ten Year Progressive Programme for the development of our medical services.
Despite the fact that this Council is vitally interested in the health and well-being of the community, the Government has not yet deigned to make a copy available to members of this Council.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.