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turn may require the approval of the Greater Council) and the approval of Legislative Council and Finance Committee for the construction of the stormwater drainage system laid within the boundaries of the road. It is not clear what authority would be required to deal with the laying of the services for the Waterworks and Utility Companies when these are also in the public roads. I suppose this could be made to work, but such a system is obviously going to be time consuming and likely to lead to delays both in the start of work and the time required for its completion, already a very sore point with the general public.

2. This, and how the money for public works was to be allocated, made it necessary for me to examine the report in greater detail, so as to determine as precisely as possible how the P.W.D. would function under the proposed organization and where its "authorities" would be drawn from. Due to the extreme brevity of the Report it was not possible to gain a clear picture of these aspects, and it was only by recourse to the minutes of the meetings of the Ad Hoc Committee which produced the report that I was able to ascertain more clearly what powers were envisaged for the Greater Council,

3. I have, therefore, assumed that the control of Building Con- struction mentioned at paragraph 19(15)(b) means the control of private building through the Buildings Ordinance Office, the control of the public buildings for the Education, Fire Services, Medical, Waterworks, Social Welfare and minor departments which it is envisaged will in the future be run by the Greater Hong Kong Council, and the control of the building of all public housing, i.e. Resettlement, Low Cost Housing, Housing Authority Estates, etc. Thus, most of the work of the Architectural Office would be controlled by the Greater Council.

4. Although not shown under Public Works it is presumed that the Planning, mentioned at paragraph 19, sub-para. 13, is Town Plan- ning, and if this is the case then either the Planning Division of the Crown Lands Office would also be under the control of the Council, or else it is envisaged that the Greater Council and not the Governor in Council would be the ultimate Town Planning Authority.

5. If, therefore, I have assessed the Ad Hoc Committee's ideas correctly, the greater part of the P.W.D. would become responsible to the Greater Hong Kong Council and the value of public works alone which would be carried out for the Council is roughly estimated at $500 million per annum.

6. This does not include the cost of staff. Presumably, the staff of departments coming under the jurisdiction of the Greater and District Councils would be paid for by the Councils and I estimate the total wage bill would be around $340 million per annum. In addition to these sums a further $330 million per annum would be required to cover the recurrent and non-recurrent expenditure of the departments

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to be taken over giving a total expenditure of around $1,170 million per

annum.

7. It is difficult to estimate from the Ad Hoc Committee's report what income they expect the Greater Hong Kong Council to receive by direct means, but assuming it receives all the present revenue from Rates, Vehicle and Driving Licences, Licences issued by the Urban Services Department, Education fees, Water charges and franchises of one sort or another, and rents from Government Housing, the total is only around $500 million per annum which leaves the balance of $670 million per annum to be provided either by the Legislature or by increasing rates and the royalties paid by the Utility Companies.

8.

This financial exercise was necessary for a proper appreciation of the flow chart or organization structure given at paragraph 17 of the report, for while this gives the general direction of flow it does not give the size of the channels and pumps required to handle the volumes of traffic in each direction and, what is more important as far as I am concerned, it does not show clearly how the heads of the various departments which are to come under the Council receive their instruc- tions on policy, how they will compete for their share of funds voted to Council by the Legislature (as I presume it will not be left to the Council simply to lay down its requirements and then for the Heads of Departments to fight the Legislature for the funds necessary to carry out Council's wishes), and how the departments can serve two heads- one at District and one at Greater Council level. In this event a size- able Council's Secretariat pump must be shown in the chart under the Greater Hong Kong Council, and owing to the volume of traffic--$1,170 million worth a year-the present Colonial Secretariat pump serving the Governor and his other Councils will have to remain. This could work, but it is going to cost more. Increase in cost is, however, accept- able if there is a corresponding increase in output and efficiency, but is this going to be the case?

9. It seems to me that the report of the Ad Hoc Committee was prepared with almost indecent haste, and I suggest that recommenda- tions which could radically affect the future well being of this Colony deserve more consideration than 20 hours and 23 minutes.

(At the suggestion of the Chairman, a brief recess was held at this point)

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, I speak today not so much as a member of the Ad Hoc Committee but as an elected member of the Civic Association.

The Civic Association and its elected members welcome the fact- finding visit to Hong Kong of the four British Members of Parliament, who left prematurely. (Laughter).