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allocated additional accommodation for these and other purposes. During the water shortage they helped the department to open up wells to augment supplies, and have been active in promoting confidence in Hong Kong, in combatting rumours and in reporting suspicious activities.
Some plan to sponsor more elaborate services such as clinics, kindergartens and primary schools. All have taken an active part in organizing football or basket-ball competitions and other outdoor activities, especially during the school holidays.
Although this growth of community spirit, and the construction of a number of other less conspicuous bridges between the department and the hundreds of thousands of people with whom it is in daily touch have not caught the headlines to the same extent as our millionth settler, they are developments of more lasting importance which we in the department will continue to foster in every possible way.
Conclusion
I should like to close on a note of optimism by sticking out my neck and making three prophesies, for this financial year looks like setting up other records. By the end of March 1968 we may expect to see the largest nett reduction during any of the last three years in the number of remaining squatters, including people in resite areas. Secondly, I am confident that we shall make a bigger impact than ever before in relieving overcrowding in the resettlement estates. And lastly, thanks to the excellent progress being made by the Architectural Office and its contractors in completing buildings under construction, there is every likelihood that more people will be resettled than in any previous financial year. (Applause).
DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL WELFARE:-Mr. Chairman, Mr. SALES has expressed the view that Official Members should not restrict their replies to a mere defence of their own departments, and the hope that they may be willing to advance suggestions of their own. In this spirit I propose to begin, not, it is true, by initiating a suggestion of my own but rather by developing one made by Mr. Kenneth Lo when he spoke about appeals procedure. I am much in sympathy with his views, for even with the procedural improvements that have been effected this year with particular reference to appeals on resettlement matters the time taken to settle cases where an appeal can be dragged out through successive stages is very considerable, and where, as is almost invariably the case, the appeal has from the start no possibility of succeeding, this seems to me to be wasteful of time and of no conceivable benefit to the appellant. In fact it seems to me to be positively bad. It had occurred to me that it might be possible to contemplate the creation of a completely separate Appeals Select Committee to hear all appeals
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
375
on any subject whatever, and to have final authority to determine them on behalf of the Council, without any preliminary sub-committee or any further appeal to the Standing Committee; but this, I believe, would not be practicable without amendment of legislation, or, as Mr. BARTY has pointed out, to Standing Orders, and I can foresee all kinds of other difficulties arising; for example there would be a need for members of the new select committee to become familiar with a wide range of policies, though I envisage that, apart from the regular members annually appointed, the Chairman of the Select Committee concerned with the subject under appeal would be co-opted for the hearing of an appeal. I am not personally in the least put off by the fear of having to amend an ordinance, or Standing Orders for that matter either, if it enables sensible arrangements to be made which, while providing adequate opportunity for appeal, would not only produce quicker decisions for appellants but would also save the time of both councillors and appellants. At any rate, whether my suggestion has merit or not, I believe that the whole question of appeal procedure should be brought under review by the Standing Orders and Procedure Select Committee at an early date.
Before I go on to subjects in which my Department has some interest, I pause to make one other brief observation which concerns the character of these annual debates. It is one thing to comment on and criticize Government policies and administration; that is expected. Even there it seems to have been the normal convention that such criticisms avoid attack upon the way in which individual officers personally apply themselves to their work, whether they are members of the Council or not. But I do not believe that the Council's reputation will gain in the eyes of the public if, in the course of its meetings, personal criticism is voiced of the manner in which the head of an autonomous body divides his time in carrying out his responsibilities. I am more concerned with the principle than with the substance of the criticism voiced on this occasion-though I personally believe that Dr. LI Choh-ming gives service to the University and the community of a very high order, wherever he may be from time to time.
I pass now to Mr. FORSGATE's remarks about the ready availability of pornographic literature in wall stalls in the Tsim Sha Tsui district. There are, I understand, two difficulties to be met in trying effectively to eliminate the distribution of pornographic publications. One of these applies to any society except, I suppose, a totalitarian one, and the other is of local origin. The first is that there is probably more disagreement everywhere as to what is merely obscene, and what on the other hand has artistic merit than on almost any other subject, except perhaps how correctly to mix a dry martini.
There are no doubt many publications, the obscenity of which is obvious to anyone, but there are also certainly others where there is a strong element of
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
allocated additional accommodation for these and other purposes. During the water shortage they helped the department to open up wells to augment supplies, and have been active in promoting confidence in Hong Kong, in combatting rumours and in reporting suspicious activi- ties.
Some plan to sponsor more elaborate services such as clinics, kindergartens and primary schools. All have taken an active part in organizing football or basket-ball competitions and other outdoor activi- ties, especially during the school holidays.
Although this growth of community spirit, and the construction of a number of other less conspicuous bridges between the department and the hundreds of thousands of people with whom it is in daily touch have not caught the headlines to the same extent as our millionth settler, they are developments of more lasting importance which we in the department will continue to foster in every possible way.
Conclusion
I should like to close on a note of optimism by sticking out my neck and making three prophesies, for this financial year looks like setting up other records. By the end of March 1968 we may expect to see the largest nett reduction during any of the last three years in the number of remaining squatters, including people in resite areas. Secondly, I am confident that we shall make a bigger impact than ever before in relieving overcrowding in the resettlement estates. And lastly, thanks to the excellent progress being made by the Architectural Office and its contractors in completing buildings under construction, there is every likelihood that more people will be resettled than in any pre- vious financial year. (Applause).
DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL WELFARE:-Mr. Chairman, Mr. SALES has expressed the view that Official Members should not restrict their re- plies to a mere defence of their own departments, and the hope that they may be willing to advance suggestions of their own. In this spirit I propose to begin, not, it is true, by initiating a suggestion of my own but rather by developing one made by Mr. Kenneth Lo when he spoke about appeals procedure. I am much in sympathy with his views, for even with the procedural improvements that have been effected this year with particular reference to appeals on resettlement matters the time taken to settle cases where an appeal can be dragged out through successive stages is very considerable, and where, as is almost invariably the case, the appeal has from the start no possibility of succeeding, this seems to me to be wasteful of time and of no conceivable benefit to the appellant. In fact it seems to me to be positively bad. It had occurred to me that it might be possible to contemplate the creation of a completely separate Appeals Select Committee to hear all appeals
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
375
on any subject whatever, and to have final authority to determine them on behalf of the Council, without any preliminary sub-committee or any further appeal to the Standing Committee; but this, I believe, would not be practicable without amendment of legislation, or, as Mr. BARTY has pointed out, to Standing Orders, and I can foresee all kinds of other difficulties arising; for example there would be a need for members of the new select committee to become familiar with a wide range of policies, though I envisage that, apart from the regular members annually appointed, the Chairman of the Select Committee concerned with the subject under appeal would be co-opted for the hearing of an appeal. I am not personally in the least put off by the fear of having to amend an ordinance, or Standing Orders for that matter either, if it enables sensible arrangements to be made which, while providing adequate opportunity for appeal, would not only produce quicker decisions for appellants but would also save the time of both councillors and appellants. At any rate, whether my suggestion has merit or not, I believe that the whole question of appeal procedure should be brought under review by the Standing Orders and Procedure Select Committee at an early date.
Before I go on to subjects in which my Department has some interest, I pause to make one other brief observation which concerns the character of these annual debates. It is one thing to comment on and criticize Government policies and administration; that is expected. Even there it seems to have been the normal convention that such criticisms avoid attack upon the way in which individual officers per- sonally apply themselves to their work, whether they are members of the Council or not. But I do not believe that the Council's reputation will gain in the eyes of the public if, in the course of its meetings, per- sonal criticism is voiced of the manner in which the head of an autonomous body divides his time in carrying out his responsibilities. I am more concerned with the principle than with the substance of the criticism voiced on this occasion-though I personally believe that Dr. LI Choh-ming gives service to the University and the community of a very high order, wherever he may be from time to time.
I pass now to Mr. FORSGATE's remarks about the ready availability of pornographic literature in wall stalls in the Tsim Sha Tsui district. There are, I understand, two difficulties to be met in trying effectively to eliminate the distribution of pornographic publications. One of these applies to any society except, I suppose, a totalitarian one, and the other is of local origin. The first is that there is probably more disagreement everywhere as to what is merely obscene, and what on the other hand has artistic merit than on almost any other subject, except perhaps how correctly to mix a dry martini.
There are no doubt many publications, the obscenity of which is obvious to anyone, but there are also certainly others where there is a strong element of
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