HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
know, trying to find out from some of the former Members of the Council whether they would be willing to donate this volume. (Laughter).
MR. SALES-Surely, Mr. Chairman, the most important period is that which started on April 1st, 1957. Mr. Chairman, may I ask a supplementary question? Is the Chairman of the Urban Council not aware that the management of the City Hall most of the time functions somewhat independently and without his knowledge in many matters respecting the City Hall, particularly the opening of exhibitions and the like?
CHAIRMAN:---Sir, your question is really out of order.
MR. SALES: -Would you refer that question to the appropriate Select Committee?
CHAIRMAN:-I am prepared to do so.
MR. BERNACCHI:-As a supplementary (more, I hope, in order), I presume, Sir, that in September 1955 the first edition of Hansard came out. What was the position before September 1955? Is there no record at all of our meetings?
CHAIRMAN:-I do not think there is a full record.
DR. R. H. S. LEE asked the following question:-
Can the Chairman find out how long after the meeting do the minutes of Urban Council Select Committees become non-restricted and is it possible for these to be bound and deposited in the City Hall Library for the public to read?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:
There does not appear to be anything laid down as to when the minutes of our Select Committees become non-restricted. I think that it is for Members to decide whether these minutes should be made available as suggested and I propose therefore to refer the matter to the Standing Committee of this Council for consideration.
DR. LEE:-Mr. Chairman, I wonder whether or not it helps in the deliberations of the Standing Committee of the Whole Council but reading from the biography of former prime ministers we frequently read minutes of the previous deliberations in matters of national concern?
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MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, is Dr. LEE perhaps thinking that there are embryonic prime ministers among us? (Laughter).
CHAIRMAN:-I would be glad to think so. (Laughter).
MOTION.
Resumption of the following motion moved by the Chairman, Urban Council, at the meeting held on 3rd December, 1963: —
THAT this Council endorse the Statement of Aims for 1964 tabled today.
He said: The debate on the Statement of Aims for 1964 which was adjourned from the December Meeting will now be resumed. I have pleasure in calling on the Commissioner for Resettlement to reply to the points, which were raised by Members in their speeches, concerning Resettlement.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-Mr. Chairman, in rising to support the motion before this Council, may I first thank you and the Members for the kind welcome which you gave me at our last meeting. As a newcomer to the Council, I cannot hope to match either the eloquence or the experience of those to whom I listened with such interest a month ago. Nor need I detain you for long since the references to Resettlement were perhaps fewer than on previous occasions, though nonetheless cogent and critical.
Turning to the matters in hand: Dr. Raymond LEE, Dr. P. F. Woo and Mr. Wilfred WONG expressed particular concern over the health hazards to which illegal structures on rooftops and pavements, and in private yards and scavenging lanes give rise. I believe that you, Mr. Chairman, share this anxiety as we in the Resettlement Department also do. On the 3rd March, 1958 the Resettlement & Clearance Policy Select Committee accepted a recommendation that no action should be taken by the Resettlement Department against squatter huts in the backyards of tenement buildings. At the August 1958 meeting of that Committee, Members decided to apply the same policy to unlawful structures on the roofs of ground floor kitchens. In consequence of these decisions, my department has no information on the number of such structures in private yards, but I understand that the Health Inspectorate and the Buildings Ordinance Office are alive to the dangers they present and that my friend the Director of Public Works will have something to say on this subject. The number of illegal structures on rooftops (including the tops of ground floor kitchens), on streets, pavements, and rear and side lanes within the built-up parts of the urban area is approximately 23,000. These rooftop structures were surveyed and registered in 1956 and the others in 1959. The policy which has
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know, trying to find out from some of the former Members of the Council whether they would be willing to donate this volume. (Laughter).
MR. SALES-Surely, Mr. Chairman, the most important period is that which started on April 1st, 1957. Mr. Chairman, may I ask a supplementary question? Is the Chairman of the Urban Council not aware that the management of the City Hall most of the time functions somewhat independently and without his knowledge in many matters respecting the City Hall, particularly the opening of exhibitions and the like?
CHAIRMAN:---Sir, your question is really out of order.
MR. SALES: -Would you refer that question to the appropriate Select Committee?
CHAIRMAN:-I am prepared to do so.
MR. BERNACCHI:-As a supplementary (more, I hope, in order), I presume, Sir, that in September 1955 the first edition of Hansard came out. What was the position before September 1955? Is there no record at all of our meetings?
CHAIRMAN:-I do not think there is a full record.
DR. R. H. S. LEE asked the following question:-
Can the Chairman find out how long after the meeting do the minutes of Urban Council Select Committees become non-restricted and is it possible for these to be bound and deposited in the City Hall Library for the public to read?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:
There does not appear to be anything laid down as to when the minutes of our Select Committees become non- restricted. I think that it is for Members to decide whether these minutes should be made available as suggested and I propose therefore to refer the matter to the Standing Committee of this Council for consideration.
DR. LEE:-Mr. Chairman, I wonder whether or not it helps in the deliberations of the Standing Committee of the Whole Council but reading from the biography of former prime ministers we frequently read minutes of the previous deliberations in matters of national concern?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
303
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, is Dr. LEE perhaps thinking that there are embryonic prime ministers among us? (Laughter).
CHAIRMAN:-I would be glad to think so. (Laughter).
MOTION.
Resumption of the following motion moved by the Chairman, Urban Council, at the meeting held on 3rd December, 1963: —
THAT this Council endorse the Statement of Aims for 1964
tabled today.
He said: The debate on the Statement of Aims for 1964 which was adjourned from the December Meeting will now be resumed. I have pleasure in calling on the Commissioner for Resettlement to reply to the points, which were raised by Members in their speeches, concern- ing Resettlement.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-Mr. Chairman, in rising to support the motion before this Council, may I first thank you and the Members for the kind welcome which you gave me at our last meeting. As a newcomer to the Council, I cannot hope to match either the eloquence or the experience of those to whom I listened with such interest a month ago. Nor need I detain you for long since the references to Resettlement were perhaps fewer than on previous occasions, though nonetheless cogent and critical.
Turning to the matters in hand: Dr. Raymond LEE, Dr. P. F. Woo and Mr. Wilfred WONG expressed particular concern over the health hazards to which illegal structures on rooftops and pavements, and in private yards and scavenging lanes give rise. I believe that you, Mr. Chairman, share this anxiety as we in the Resettlement Department also do. On the 3rd March, 1958 the Resettlement & Clearance Policy Select Committee accepted a recommendation that no action should be taken by the Resettlement Department against squatter huts in the backyards of tenement buildings. At the August 1958 meeting of that Committee, Members decided to apply the same policy to unlawful structures on the roofs of ground floor kitchens. In consequence of these decisions, my department has no information on the number of such structures in private yards, but I understand that the Health Inspectorate and the Buildings Ordinance Office are alive to the dangers they present and that my friend the Director of Public Works will have something to say on this subject. The number of illegal structures on rooftops (including the tops of ground floor kitchens), on streets, pave- ments, and rear and side lanes within the built-up parts of the urban area is approximately 23,000. These rooftop structures were surveyed and registered in 1956 and the others in 1959. The policy which has
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