1967 — Page 201

OT 259

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doubt. The other difficulty to which I referred is that in the present state of our law in Hong Kong, while the exhibition of indecent publica- tions is an offence, the mere possession of them is not, and if a stall holder does not display such material but keeps it under the counter he is committing no offence. Approval has been sought and granted for the drafting of legislation to amend the Indecent Exhibitions Ordin- ance so as to provide that it shall be an offence for the owner of a shop or stall to be in possession of any written or printed matter, picture, film, figure or other thing of an indecent, obscene, revolting or offensive nature with a view to selling or distributing it, the onus of proof that it is not for sale or distribution being on the person charged. I cannot say when the legislation will be drafted as it has to compete for priority with many other items, and I can only say that I have recently raised afresh the question of its priority. In the meantime the Police take routine action as far as other commitments allow. Apart from prosecuting where an offence has been detected, applica- tion is made to a magistrate for forfeiture where obviously indecent matter is possessed but is not exposed. In Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui 182 raids have been carried out in connection with indecent publications and films between January and November this year, re- sulting in 135 arrests; where a conviction resulted most offenders were fined; the maximum sentence awarded was two months' imprisonment.

Happily, elsewhere we can find a wealth of publications of a more edifying character, a fact which will I hope appeal to Mr. Solomon RAFEEK who has emphasized the value of libraries, especially in low cost housing areas. Nobody is likely to disagree with his view on this; certainly not the thousands of people who use the libraries that the Social Welfare Department and a number of voluntary agencies at present provide. The Social Welfare Department runs 6 libraries in as many community and social centres with an average of nearly 24,000 books in each library. Some 4,200 children and adults make use of these facilities every day, and the annual patronage reaches a figure of some 1.3 million persons. In addition to these libraries we also pro- vide through our Mobile Library, service, usually in the New Terri- tories, which caters for those who are out of reach of static facilities. The book stock for this library is 19,500 and the monthly attendance is about 8,000 children. This service is being further extended in the near future when two additional mobile library vans will be put on the road. In the voluntary field, a number of agencies run libraries for children in areas of heavy population. One of these, the Boys' & Girls' Clubs Association operates a total of 15 libraries in various parts of Hong Kong and Kowloon (some of them in parks operated by the Urban Council), with a total book stock of 88,000 volumes and a total annual attendance of 1,346,000 children. I am told that they plan to open at least 3 more during 1968, two of which will be in the new

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estate welfare buildings to be provided at Ham Tin and Shek Lei Resettlement Estates. It is indeed our intention that one of the more or less regular facilities in most new Estate Welfare Buildings will be a library. Other voluntary agencies, including some Kaifong Associa- tions and Rural Committees, operate among them 7 other libraries on the Island, 11 in Kowloon and 6 in the New Territories.

A predominant number of our library readers are children and young persons, and it may therefore be appropriate for me to switch now to some of the other interests of young persons, of which several members have spoken.

Mr. LOBO for example had some interesting and challenging re- marks to make on new camping and training activities for young people. As he has correctly said, a considerable effort was made by many people to see that the number of youngsters involved in recrea- tional activities during the summer holidays this year reached a higher level than ever before. In fact more than 250,000 children took part in one way or another, and many agencies, schools and individuals were involved in this as well as many Government departments. The Army also played a notable part in the provision of camping facilities for 2,000 children: indeed the Army camps provide opportunities for some of the more exciting and unusual activities that Mr. LOBO has referred to, and I hope very much that we may be able to look forward to a repetition of these next year. Discussions to this end have already taken place. One of the main things that the Army wanted to achieve in these camps was to give the young camper some kind of experience that he had never had before, something that he could look back upon as really exciting and note-worthy when he had gone home at the end of his five days in camp.

Mr. LOBO has speculated on the possibility of making such provi- sions more regular and continuous, and has suggested a Hong Kong Cadet Force and a corps of volunteer workers. I have recently written to the Council of Social Service on the subject of a more consistent and greater use of volunteers, and my department will certainly be on the lookout for volunteers of various ages. In point of fact we are in touch regularly with quite a number of volunteers, mostly in the upper school and University bracket, but there is scope for widening the area of search, though we must not underestimate the work that is involved in organizing the volunteers and providing some basic orientation. Last year we had a very good group of officers from the Commerce and Industry Department who helped greatly with our camps. I think myself that it might well be a very good thing if groups of willing volunteers with some experience of working together as colleagues in their normal occupation could be formed.