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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
demolished and 33,817 persons living on them have been resettled or, in the case of grounded boats, resited. The Director of Marine estimates that there are about 1,300 non-working boats in the two central typhoon shelters and a further 3,000 in the outlying shelters. If previous experience is a reliable guide, these boats probably house about 9,000 people at Yau Ma Tei and Causeway Bay and 21,000 elsewhere.
5. The Director of Marine assures me that he has no powers either to remove non-working boats from the shelters or to prevent access to the shelters by small craft. I, too, have no powers to seize or demolish such craft, whether licensed or unlicensed, or compulsorily to resettle the occupants ashore. Under existing legislation, the removal of these non-working boats can only be carried out on a voluntary basis when, of course, we would have to insist on the surrender of the boats for destruction as a quid pro quo for resettlement. There is then nothing to prevent more non-working boats taking their place in the shelters and joining the queue for rehousing. There is in fact a market for old boats, uneconomic for working use but still seaworthy enough to obtain licences, and there are no powers to compel owners to break-up these second-hand craft instead of realizing the fairly good price they can obtain by selling to others whose ultimate aim may be resettlement ashore. To offer people those non-working craft, some of which are providing a service to the neighbours within the typhoon shelters, a resite ashore in a Class I or II area would be of little use since they would be unlikely to consider that this was adequate recompense for surrendering their boats. Resite space on land has been offered to persons occupying derelict and unlicensed boats in some areas, for example, Cheung Sha Wan, but this offer has not always been accepted. The Resettlement Department, however, continues to work closely with the Marine Department in regard to the resiting ashore of the occupants of this latter type of non-working boats but, as I have already explained, neither the Director of Marine nor I have compulsory powers. In this connexion the Director of Marine advises me that the legislation concerning the control of typhoon shelters and the manner in which craft shall make use of them is currently being reviewed.
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## Hawkers
6. A great deal was said on the subject of hawkers about whom I sense a conflict of sympathies among my unofficial colleagues. I sometimes wonder whether certain policies and decisions, such as the closure of many streets to hawking, have not had the unintentional effect of forcing these traders to seek refuge in Resettlement Estates in the hope that they may prove to be a sort of Tom Tiddler's ground in which they may be safe from being "tagged" by this Council's Hawker Control Force or the more ubiquitous police. The hawker problem is with us in Resettlement Estates, in some places as seriously as in other urban areas. If, therefore, there is to be any re-thinking of policy, such as Mr. Hu and Mr. Lobo suggested, I hope that the Resettlement Department will be fully consulted.
7. One solution which I suggest can be ruled out at once is that proposed by my friend Mr. Wilfred Wong, namely that fixed pitch hawkers should be offered shops in Resettlement Estates. I am informed that, excluding newspaper vendors, there were at the end of November 7,003 fixed pitch licences in force and that the number is increasing at a rate of well over 200 a year. In Resettlement Estates opened since 1954, there are only around 8,300 shop and workshop bays occupied by 7,229 businesses, and the rate of growth is likely to diminish as we go over increasingly to 16-storey construction. If we are to meet the requirements of squatter shops cleared to make way for development, and of the existing waiting list of cultivators and pigbreeders, I see no prospect of also providing for the city's licensed fixed pitch hawkers.
8. Meanwhile, some progress is being made in the estates. Appropriate select committees have agreed that estate staff should be given certain powers to control hawking under the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, and a resolution to this effect will shortly be submitted to the Council for consideration. If the resolution is approved, we shall, for the first time, have power to maintain order in our own house. As Mr. Bernacchi has pointed out, we are endeavouring to concentrate hawkers in covered hawker bazaars and, in this respect, we are meeting with some success particularly in the new estates. It is clear from past experience that, in planning where to put these bazaars, certain very general principles apply. But in practice one also needs the assistance of a crystal ball, for if hawkers are gregarious and may be expected to congregate together in localities which can be defined in advance in very general terms, they are also to some extent unpredictable in their reaction to chosen sites. It is therefore necessary to be flexible, to be ready to alter plans for an estate as it fills up and the trading pattern takes shape.
9. If I may be permitted a personal note, I am one of those who believe that hawkers fulfil an economic need in resettlement estates and must be accepted. But I am also on the side of those who consider that hawkers should not be a privileged class, permitted to set themselves up wherever they will and to ride rough-shod over the convenience of everyone else.
## Restaurants and Cooked Food Stalls
10. Mr. Fung Hon-chu pressed for the provision of more restaurants in Resettlement Estates and urged my department to "stop putting off this matter further". I can assure him that there is no question of
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
demolished and 33,817 persons living on them have been resettled or, in the case of grounded boats, resited. The Director of Marine estimates that there are about 1,300 non-working boats in the two central typhoon shelters and a further 3,000 in the outlying shelters. If previous experience is a reliable guide, these boats probably house about 9,000 people at Yau Ma Tei and Causeway Bay and 21,000 elsewhere.
5. The Director of Marine assures me that he has no powers either to remove non-working boats from the shelters or to prevent access to the shelters by small craft. I, too, have no powers to seize or demolish such craft, whether licensed or unlicensed, or compulsorily to resettle the occupants ashore. Under existing legislation, the removal of these non-working boats can only be carried out on a voluntary basis when, of course, we would have to insist on the surrender of the boats for destruction as a quid pro quo for resettlement. There is then nothing to prevent more non-working boats taking their place in the shelters and joining the queue for rehousing. There is in fact a market for old boats, uneconomic for working use but still seaworthy enough to obtain licences, and there are no powers to compel owners to break-up these second-hand craft instead of realizing the fairly good price they can obtain by selling to others whose ultimate aim may be resettlement ashore. To offer people those non-working craft, some of which are providing a service to the neighbours within the typhoon shelters, a resite ashore in a Class I or II area would be of little use since they would be unlikely to consider that this was adequate recompense for surrendering their boats. Resite space on land has been offered to persons occupying derelict and unlicensed boats in some areas, for example, Cheung Sha Wan, but this offer has not always been accepted. The Resettlement Department, however, continues to work closely with the Marine Department in regard to the resiting ashore of the occupants of this latter type of non-working boats but, as I have already explained, neither the Director of Marine nor I have compulsory powers. In this connexion the Director of Marine advises me that the legislation con- cerning the control of typhoon shelters and the manner in which craft shall make use of them is currently being reviewed.
Hawkers
6. A great deal was said on the subject of hawkers about whom I sense a conflict of sympathies among my unofficial colleagues. I sometimes wonder whether certain policies and decisions, such as the closure of many streets to hawking, have not had the unintentional effect of forcing these traders to seek refuge in Resettlement Estates in the hope that they may prove to be a sort of Tom Tiddler's ground in which they may be safe from being "tagged" by this Council's Hawker Control Force or the more ubiquitous police. The hawker problem is with us in Resettlement Estates, in some places as seriously as in other
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
515
urban areas. If, therefore, there is to be any re-thinking of policy, such as Mr. Hu and Mr. LOBO suggested, I hope that the Resettlement Department will be fully consulted.
7. One solution which I suggest can be ruled out at once is that proposed by my friend Mr. Wilfred WONG, namely that fixed pitch hawkers should be offered shops in Resettlement Estates. I am in- formed that, excluding newspaper vendors, there were at the end of November 7,003 fixed pitch licences in force and that the number is Mr. Chairman, in the 17 increasing at a rate of well over 200 a year. Resettlement Estates opened since 1954, there are only around 8,300 shop and workshop bays occupied by 7,229 businesses, and the rate of growth is likely to diminish as we go over increasingly to 16-storey construction. If we are to meet the requirements of squatter shops cleared to make way for development, and of the existing waiting list of cultivators and pigbreeders, I see no prospect of also providing for the city's licensed fixed pitch hawkers.
The
8. Meanwhile, some progress is being made in the estates. appropriate select committees have agreed that estate staff should be given certain powers to control hawking under the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, and a resolution to this effect will shortly be submitted to the Council for consideration. If the resolution is approved, we shall, for the first time, have power to maintain order in our own house. As Mr. BERNACCHI has pointed out, we are endeavour- ing to concentrate hawkers in covered hawker bazaars and, in this respect, we are meeting with some success particularly in the new estates. It is clear from past experience that, in planning where to put these bazaars, certain very general principles apply. But in practice one also needs the assistance of a crystal ball, for if hawkers are gregarious and may be expected to congregate together in localities which can be defined in advance in very general terms, they are also to some extent unpredic- table in their reaction to chosen sites. It is therefore necessary to be flexible, to be ready to alter plans for an estate as it fills up and the trading pattern takes shape.
9. If I may be permitted a personal note, I am one of those who believe that hawkers fulfil an economic need in resettlement estates and must be accepted. But I am also on the side of those who consider that hawkers should not be a privileged class, permitted to set them- selves up wherever they will and to ride rough-shod over the convenience of everyone else.
Restaurants and Cooked Food Stalls
10. Mr. FUNG Hon-chu pressed for the provision of more restau- rants in Resettlement Estates and urged my department to "stop putting off this matter further". I can assure him that there is no question of
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