1963 — Page 179

of 194

Page 179 of 194

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. CHEONG-LEEN: Mr. Chairman, is Mr. SALES seriously suggesting that eventually this Council should consider charging for advertisements?

MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, there is no reason why Government should not charge for advertisements. There is no reason why com- mercial advantage should be taken of our roads, streets and buildings without the public coffers benefitting as a result.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, may I ask the Chairman of the Urban Amenities Select Committee, through you, whether he can give any approximate indication as to when these By-laws will be com- pleted, because, as he has mentioned, it has been many years since the draft was revised and revised several times over?

MR. SALES-Mr. Chairman, I used the term "a few years" not "many years".

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-I still have not had my first supplementary question answered, that is, that the existing By-laws are very much out of date. Are they, Mr. Chairman?

MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, the By-laws have been revised because they are out of date. If they were not out of date there would have been no need for revision.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, the proposed Advertisement By-laws are under revision. They have not yet been passed by this Council.

MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, may I suggest that a copy of the draft By-laws as revised and still under consideration for the last time, be submitted to Mr. CHEONG-LEEN, since it has been my experience that whenever I have invited him to attend a meeting of the Urban Amenities Select Committee, he has hardly ever taken advantage of it because of the early hour.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, Mr. SALES says he has not invited me because of the time. I am still awaiting his next invitation.

MR. SALES: The invitation is extended through you, Mr. Chair-

man.

MR. WATSON:-Mr. Chairman, may I ask a supplementary on this question? Does the Department consider that it now has sufficient powers to remove offending advertisements, particularly in rural dis- tricts?

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MR. SALES: The Department has done so, Mr. Chairman, in respect of a complaint put forward jointly by Mr. WATSON and Mr. MARDEN, because of offensive advertisements appearing within their res- pective or joint constituency. (Laughter).

MR. WATSON-I will just say that they are still appearing. (Laughter).

MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question :-

In addition to the regular year-round public health and cleans- ing campaigns of this Council, will the Director of Urban Services be prepared to organize (as an effective exercise in civic education) a KEEP YOUR CITY CLEAN WEEK some time in the second half of the year, in which Kaifong Associations and other interested groups will seek maxi- mum public co-operation to keep our streets as free as possible from rubbish and litter during this KEEP YOUR CITY CLEAN WEEK?

THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-

I understand that the Health Education Select Committee has already agreed on a programme of Health Education Cam- paigns for 1964/65, and I ask the Chairman of the Com- mittee to reply to this specific question.

DR. P. F. Woo, CHAIRMAN OF THE HEALTH EDUCATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:

The Health Education Select Committee has recently approved a programme of publicity campaigns for this year which includes a "Keep Your City Clean" campaign in Septem- ber or October. Details of this campaign have not yet been worked out but I agree that if the campaign is to be effective it must be intensive and my Committee will examine your suggestion that it should be concentrated into a single week.

Kaifong Associations and other interested bodies will certainly be invited to co-operate and I am sure that they will give their assistance gladly as they have done in the past.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-May I say, in clarification, that this reply by the Chairman of the Health Education Select Committee was not organized by the Elected Members. It was organized either by the chair or the Department.