1965 — Page 251

Page 251 of 382

480

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

The most important feature of the Working Party's recommendation is the widening of the franchise. If adopted, it will mean a large number of our citizens who are now denied the right to vote will be able to do so in future Urban Council elections. The category of voters will no longer be confined to the Jury List alone, but will include the taxpayers and even down to persons who have no other qualifications than just being the holders of a School Certificate. It is estimated that the number of enfranchised persons will be increased from the present electoral roll of 29,000 to well over 200,000 strong. The number may still be small in ratio to our total population. But we must all agree that it will be a fair representation of our community.

The farsightedness on the part of the Working Party in recommending the enfranchisement of our young citizens who need only to have a School Certificate as a qualification to vote, deserves our applause. As the future belongs to the young, the earlier we can teach them to be civic-minded and encourage them to participate and take an active interest in civic affairs, the better it will be. In so doing, we will be bringing up a new generation who will be proud to identify themselves with Hong Kong.

Another important feature of the recommendation is the doing away with the knowledge of English as a prerequisite for qualification. The new criteria are on educational standard, be it English or Chinese. I suggest that this is very much in keeping with the aims of this Council, which are for the early adoption of bilingualism. One of the reasons offered for the apathy shown by the public in the past Urban Council elections was the language barrier. It is therefore hoped that with this barrier removed, there will be a greater enthusiasm and better turnout in future Urban Council elections.

The recommendation to include persons on the Current Rating List on the electoral roll alone will give new voting rights to over 150,000 persons. This, together with the inclusion of other taxpayers who have paid tax according to Personal Assessments, Salaries Assessments, and Business Profit Tax, will bring all the persons who are paying direct taxation into the enfranchisement. In so doing, it will remove the accusation which has long been levelled at our Government that taxpayers are not given any representation in the Local Government.

The widening of the franchise will therefore give better representation of the people on the Urban Council. Since the work of the Council is so closely bound with the everyday life of the man in the street, the wider the representation, the more effective the Council will be.

But despite their many advantages, the recommendations have their inherent anomaly. By extending the scope of the franchise, more and more of the people living in the New Territories will be entitled to vote.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

481

Here we find ourselves granting the rights to people to return candidates to a Council which has no authority over the administration of their territory and to whom it can render no service! As I see it, Sir, there are only two courses open to our Government: either let the Urban Council take over the administration of the townships as they grow bigger, or let each new township in the N.T. have its own Local Government.

Although at the recent debate, most of my colleagues were in favour of absorbing Tsuen Wan into our Council, I personally think, and for good reasons, towns in N.T. should have their own local councils. We must remember that it is not Tsuen Wan alone that we will be dealing with. There will be many new towns to come. According to the announcement made on the 25th September this year, Government has already plans in hand to develop Sha Tin and Castle Peak into new towns, each with a planned population of a million. It will be physically impossible for this Council to run these cities whose total population will be almost as big as our own.

At the same time, it will be equally impossible for Government to try to carry on with the administration of N.T. under its present system indefinitely. The existing system has already shown its inadequacy in many ways. It is definitely hampering the N.T. developments and causing the residents a great deal of inconvenience. For someone living in Yuen Long, can there be anything more inconvenient than having to come all the way to Reclamation Street in Hong Kong to renew his car licence? Yes, there are. A man who wishes to sell ice cream in Tai Po will have to come to Urban Services Department in Kowloon to apply for his permit. A merchant who wishes to start a business in Sheung Shui will have to come all the way to the Business Registration Department situated right in this building for a Business Licence. All residents in N.T. have to come to the Kowloon Treasury at Argyle Street to pay their taxes and water rates; and the place is so small that taxpayers have to queue up in the street under the sun and rain and wait for at least 30 minutes before they can come to their turn!

Do not all these prove that our 19th-century system of Government is bursting at its seams? Should we not alter the structure of our Government to meet the changing social and economic conditions of our time? Sir Alexander Grantham in his book "Via Ports" said that Hong Kong was too small a place to have both a central government and a fully-fledged municipal government. But even Sir Alexander has underestimated the rapid growth of this Colony. Had he envisaged the development of Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin, and Castle Peak into industrial townships of a million population each, he too might have a second thought on the matter.

Page 251 of 382