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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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beyond all recognition in the last several years. that Government is about to keep its promise.

Yet there is no news

On the other hand, development of all that area has now even outpaced Tsuen Wan's growth. Actually, the area between Lai Chi Kok and Tsuen Wan is also being developed at a fast rate.

There are two other examples in the New Territories which come to mind immediately, namely, Castle Peak and Sha Tin. So let us consider their position as well.

This Council has time and again asked for its jurisdiction to be extended beyond the present Urban confines because in our cir- cumstances it is wasteful of money and manpower to draw arbitrary lines. In the New Territories the Council has functions to perform in relation to, notably, beaches, parks, playgrounds and, of course, public housing. In point of fact, the Urban Council, by virtue of its participa- tion in the work of the Housing Authority, has already gone into the New Territories. Besides, the Council advises on the improvement of amenities at the beaches there so much so that recently a special sub- committee was set up with excellent result if their recommendations concerning New Territories beaches are implemented.

Consequently, I support this motion. Indeed, I do not think that it goes far enough. I believe that the motion should include Kwai Chung and, as I said earlier, all the area which lies between Lai Chi Kok and Tsuen Wan. If we want to be far-sighted, we ought also to think of Castle Peak and Sha Tin. At the same time, while Government ponders over the issue, let us be given immediate permission to exercise some of our functions in the New Territories where the expert knowledge we have accumulated will be of benefit to the people living there.

There can be no practical justification for a system of administra- tion which duplicates functions in urban and rural settings. That there is recognition of this waste of public funds is evidenced by the fact that the Urban Services Department, among others, is doing work in the New Territories but without a corresponding extension of this Council's authority. Therefore, Sir, as I said earlier I will vote for this motion.

MR. WANG:-Mr. Chairman, I also rise to support the motion and whole-heartedly begin. It is indeed time that we now recognize the status of Tsuen Wan as a fully urbanized district and it is, therefore, time that we should put under the jurisdiction of this Urban Council, Tsuen Wan and all areas between Tsuen Wan and the urban area. In supporting the motion, however, I wish to say that I would rather support that the present administrative set-up should have a rural and Urban Council. I would not go to the further extent of supporting that we should have any more district councils. Whilst supporting the motion of Mr. CHEUNG, I wish at this moment to say that I do not share

his feeling "that it would be farcical if councillors they elect have no jurisdiction over their own districts." I hope that voters in other rural areas would not entertain the same misgiving. I am sure also that Mr. CHEUNG does not mean that the residents in rural districts should not be given the right to vote or that the welfare of the urban district or the work of the Urban Council are of no concern of the residents of rural districts. It is indeed a wise policy that we have adopted that on a question of franchise there should be no question of rural distinc- tion, for it is to be recognized that residents in rural districts should take a legitimate interest in the work of the Urban Council, and apart from the questions closely connected with those of the Urban Council, there are, of course, various services which this Council has extended to districts of the rural area. It is for these reasons that we would wish to see keener interest shown by the residents in the rural districts in the work of Urban Council even though their districts are not under the jurisdiction of our Council. But in considering whether or not certain districts should be brought under the jurisdiction of the Urban Council, I think one need only to take into consideration the aspect of whether the district is urbanized in nature or still remains rural. And

it is on this point that I fully support the motion because it is indeed a fact that Tsuen Wan is a purely urbanized area and that Tsuen Wan has now beyond doubt become so urbanized, both in the size of popula- tion and the way of life of its residents, that their problems now bear more resemblance to the urban areas than those of the rural districts. Mr. Chairman, I fully support the motion.

CHAIRMAN: -I have listened with close interest to the views expressed in this debate. Although the motion refers only to Tsuen Wan, I have assumed that it is implicit in it that it includes reference to Kwai Chung as well, and what I have to say is based on that assump- tion. The matter is, to say the least, a complex one and not casily to be determined in the course of a short debate, but it is quite evidently of considerable importance, particularly in the context of the develop- ment of local government in Hong Kong. I am not aware of any specific proposals by Government for any early changes in the status of Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung. Speaking personally, even if there were any such proposals, I suggest that they might not inevitably lead in the direction contemplated by the mover of the motion now before us, which is based on the assumption that Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung have for all practical purposes become an extension of urban Kowloon. There is still a considerable physical separation between these two places and Kowloon.

Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung are designed as a self-contained city. Other such cities will develop in the New Territories in the future. Is it, I wonder, inevitable that public administration should automatically expand outwards, unchanged, as these new cities develop? Do not