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survey to find out, among other things, whether existing systems are capable of accommodating future demands and what traffic there would be for a rapid transit system.
Mr. Lo also suggested that complaints about public transport services by newspaper readers demonstrated that the services were not reasonable. Mr. Lo will, I am sure, have read the part of the Honour-able Y. K. KAN'S budget speech, which he did not quote, in which Mr. KAN posed questions which must be answered before the Govern-ment or anyone else can pronounce the services reasonable or unreason-able. These questions have not yet been answered and cannot be answered in advance of the public transport survey. There is room for improvement, but even so during the fifteen minutes that I have been speaking our Public Transport services has probably carried some 40,000 passengers.
Mr. WANG begged the public transport companies to run special holiday services. Both bus companies run special services on holidays and in the summer evenings send fleets of vehicles to the popular beaches to bring holiday makers back. The Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry Company runs special ferries and has spare vessels on stand by. The Railway and the Peak Tram also run special services on holidays.
To conclude, Sir, may I say how pleased I am with the very close co-operation, at all levels, between the Urban Services Department and the Public Works Department. I think, too, that it would be fair to say that this co-operation extends to this Council Chamber and to the many Select Committees on which senior officers of the Public Works Department serve. I believe that this close contact, coupled with the opportunity for discussions, is of immense value and I know that the officers concerned find the experience interesting and rewarding.
Sir, I beg to support the motion.
MR. WATSON: -I am grateful to the Honourable Director of Public Works for explaining the misprint in the Annual Report. In clarifica-tion, I would say that anyone who has been following the housing situation would have known that the new flats and tenements being built would house more than 12,500 a year. But this figure might very well have been the net improvement, after deducting from the number accommodated in new buildings-the number of people whose accom-modation in old buildings has been demolished.
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The statement that private enterprise has provided accommodation for 585,000 people during the past seven years, an average of 84,000 a year, is meaningless unless it is accompanied by an estimate of the number of people who have been deprived of accommodation. How many this is I cannot say, but the Commissioner for Resettlement stated in his report dated 30th October, 1962: "It is estimated that there are still 500-600,000 squatters and their numbers are swollen by those seek-ing alternative accommodation when tenements are demolished, an estimated 100,000 in 1961-62 . . .
If this is accurate it means that private enterprise is not even building enough to accommodate those who are dispossessed, and the problem is even grimmer than I described it in April. And my sugges-tion that private enterprise must be encouraged to take a very much larger share in providing low cost housing for the masses is, I consider, that much more valid.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, would it be in order for me to congratulate Mr. Ken WATSON for being an Appointed and Official Member? (Laughter).
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: -Before I deal with the various subjects raised at the last meeting I must first thank the Unofficial Members for their interest in and concern for so many aspects of public health in Hong Kong.
Nowadays preventive medicine has become a subject whose bounds are far reaching and almost any aspect of our daily life may be said to have some effect on health. Nevertheless, I hope Members will forgive me if I take the words in their more customary meaning and confine my remarks to those aspects of public health with which the Urban Services Department is most directly concerned.
I make no apology for dealing first with a hardy annual and am grateful to Mr. FUNG Hon-chu for raising the question of fly breeding. Mr. FUNG is quite right-it is easy to make laws but difficult to enforce them-it is easy to conduct health education campaigns but difficult to ensure that the advice given is followed. I find it difficult to accept the charge that our staff are not tackling the problem with sufficient energy. It must be remembered that for two years the numerical strength of the Hygiene Division has remained the same, but this force is faced with a rapidly growing population and with the extension of urbanisation into what used to be rural areas.
Our strength will increase as more Inspectors are trained but numbers are not everything and methods of attacking the problem are constantly under examination. The work of the fly gangs-which were first formed to deal with the threat of cholera-has been analysed and new instructions have been issued to these staff. They will, it is hoped, act as the eyes of the department, searching for breeding places and either dealing with them on the spot or reporting them to the Hygiene or Cleansing Divisions for necessary action. At the same time the problems of resistance to insecticides are being studied in order to make
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survey to find out, among other things, whether existing systems are capable of accommodating future demands and what traffic there would be for a rapid transit system.
Mr. Lo also suggested that complaints about public transport services by newspaper readers demonstrated that the services were not reasonable. Mr. Lo will, I am sure, have read the part of the Honour- able Y. K. KAN'S budget speech, which he did not quote, in which Mr. KAN posed questions which must be answered before the Govern- ment or anyone else can pronounce the services reasonable or unreason- able. These questions have not yet been answered and cannot be answered in advance of the public transport survey. There is room for improvement, but even so during the fifteen minutes that I have been speaking our Public Transport services has probably carried some 40,000 passengers.
Mr. WANG begged the public transport companies to run special holiday services. Both bus companies run special services on holidays and in the summer evenings send fleets of vehicles to the popular beaches to bring holiday makers back. The Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry Company runs special ferries and has spare vessels on stand by. The Railway and the Peak Tram also run special services on holidays.
To conclude, Sir, may I say how pleased I am with the very close co-operation, at all levels, between the Urban Services Department and the Public Works Department. I think, too, that it would be fair to say that this co-operation extends to this Council Chamber and to the many Select Committees on which senior officers of the Public Works Department serve. I believe that this close contact, coupled with the opportunity for discussions, is of immense value and I know that the officers concerned find the experience interesting and rewarding.
Sir, I beg to support the motion.
MR. WATSON: -I am grateful to the Honourable Director of Public Works for explaining the misprint in the Annual Report. In clarifica- tion, I would say that anyone who has been following the housing situation would have known that the new flats and tenements being built would house more than 12,500 a year. But this figure might very well have been the net improvement, after deducting from the number accommodated in new buildings-the number of people whose accom- modation in old buildings has been demolished.
The statement that private enterprise has provided accommodation for 585,000 people during the past seven years, an average of 84,000 a year, is meaningless unless it is accompanied by an estimate of the number of people who have been deprived of accommodation. How many this is I cannot say, but the Commissioner for Resettlement stated
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
85
in his report dated 30th October, 1962: "It is estimated that there are still 500-600,000 squatters and their numbers are swollen by those seek- ing alternative accommodation when tenements are demolished, an estimated 100,000 in 1961-62 . .
""
If this is accurate it means that private enterprise is not even building enough to accommodate those who are dispossessed, and the problem is even grimmer than I described it in April. And my sugges- tion that private enterprise must be encouraged to take a very much larger share in providing low cost housing for the masses is, I consider, that much more valid.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, would it be in order for me to congratulate Mr. Ken WATSON for being an Appointed and Official Member? (Laughter).
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: -Before I deal with the various subjects raised at the last meeting I must first thank the Unofficial Members for their interest in and concern for so many aspects of public health in Hong Kong.
Nowadays preventive medicine has become a subject whose bounds are far reaching and almost any aspect of our daily life may be said to have some effect on health. Nevertheless, I hope Members will forgive me if I take the words in their more customary meaning and confine my remarks to those aspects of public health with which the Urban Services Department is most directly concerned.
I make no apology for dealing first with a hardy annual and am grateful to Mr. FUNG Hon-chu for raising the question of fly breeding. Mr. FUNG is quite right-it is easy to make laws but difficult to enforce them-it is easy to conduct health education campaigns but difficult to ensure that the advice given is followed. I find it difficult to accept the charge that our staff are not tackling the problem with sufficient energy. It must be remembered that for two years the numerical strength of the Hygiene Division has remained the same, but this force is faced with a rapidly growing population and with the extension of urbanisation into what used to be rural areas.
Our strength will increase as more Inspectors are trained but numbers are not everything and methods of attacking the problem are constantly under examination. The work of the fly gangs-which were first formed to deal with the threat of cholera-has been analysed and new instructions have been issued to these staff. They will, it is hoped, act as the eyes of the department, searching for breeding places and either dealing with them on the spot or reporting them to the Hygiene or Cleansing Divisions for necessary action. At the same time the problems of resistance to insecticides are being studied in order to make
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