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the last ten years. May I plead for standardization; this speeds up the whole process of preparing working drawings, contract documents and calling for tenders, and it also leads to lower prices.

Another group of projects on which progress was delayed for several months while the Council's requirements were being thrashed out are the swimming pool complexes at Li Cheng Uk, Kwun Tong and Kennedy Town. Recently, a fourth swimming pool complex, at Ta Kwu Ling Park, was recommended for inclusion in the Public Works Programme. We have already started site formation at Li Cheng Uk and we plan to go out to tender for the main buildings and the pools at both Li Cheng Uk and Kwun Tong next February, with Ta Kwu Ling following on two or three months behind. Kennedy Town is non-standard but sketch plans and estimates have been completed and I hope that it will be up- graded to Category A of the Public Work programme shortly.

Architectural Office output on the design and construction of parks, playgrounds and amenity areas, using funds provided from both the Public Works Department Votes and the U.S.D. Block Vote, has been impressive and the co-operation between the Council, U.S.D. and the P.W.D. in this sphere continues to be very close and successful. I would, though, like to see the P.W.D. get just a little credit for what is being done.

If I do not mention the programme of construction for latrines and bathhouses, hawker bazaars, beach buildings and other projects for which this Council are our clients, it is not because I do not recognize their importance but rather because the programmes are going on accord- ing to plan and no particular comment from me is called for. One point on which I would like to comment is the very great improvement in the architectural design of the innumerable small utilitarian buildings now being put up under these programmes.

Government is no less aware of the need to make land available for parks and recreational spaces than are the Chairman and Members of the Parks and Playgrounds Select Committee. A constant stream of plans go from the Crown Lands & Survey Office to the Land Develop- ment Planning Committee recommending the allocation of Crown Land to the U.S.D. for development as public open space. Apart from this, we are continually searching for ways and means of increasing the amount of public open space in built-up areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon, and I am hopeful that in the statutory plans of Wan Chai and Yau Ma Tei, which we are now preparing for the Town Planning Board, we shall be able to make up much of the deficiency which at present exists in these two heavily built-up areas.

Mr. RAFEEK stressed the need to face up to the problems which face us today and apply remedial action without delay. In this context he spoke of roads. Government is due to receive three very important

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reports on traffic, transport and roads within the next six months. These reports-in order of completion are, the Report of the Passenger Transport Survey Unit; the Feasibility Study into Alternative Mass Transport Systems and the Long Term Road Study. This last study will attempt to forecast traffic volume and road needs for the years between 1971 and 1986, and will of course, be continually reviewed and brought up to date.

Whether the Colony will be able to afford all the improvements in roads and transportation systems which are desirable is another matter, but what can be said with some confidence is that it will be possible for us to indicate where the funds which are available can be spent to best advantage.

Drainage and sanitation, which I know are of particular interest to this Council both from the point of view of public health and public amenity, have not been ignored. In spite of the unprecedented con- centrations of population which have taken place in the last 15 years the P.W.D. has been able to maintain reasonably good sanitary conditions by means of a sewer duplication programme. It is evident, however, that in the future our methods of sewage disposal may have to be more sophisticated and a specialist group has been set up within the Civil Engineering Office of the P.W.D. so that we can anticipate problems which may arise. This Unit is at present in embryo and local officers, who have been sent to England on post graduate courses in Public Health Engineering, have been posted to it.

Mr. Kenneth Lo suggested the development of our reservoirs for recreational purposes. When considering recreation in reservoir catch- ment areas, a clear distinction must be made between "direct" and "in- direct" catchments. A "direct" catchment is that area from which water flows directly from the hills into the reservoir; an "indirect" catchment area contributes its rainwater to the reservoir by means of catchwater channels, tunnels and so on.

The use of catchment areas for purposes other than the collecting of water must be controlled more rigidly in direct catchments than in indirect, because there is no way of diverting the flow from a direct catchment if it becomes too polluted. Even in indirect catchments great care must be taken to reduce the danger of excessive pollution. This is particularly true in Hong Kong because by far the greater part of our catchment areas are of this type, and their importance needs no elabora- tion.

Having made these reservations, I should like to say that I entirely agree with Mr. Lo that the best possible use should be made of reservoir catchment areas for recreational purposes. To this end the Director of Water Supplies has been nominated as one of the two P.W.D. representa- tives on the Provisional Council for the Use and Conservation of the Countryside. The Provisional Council is considering, inter alia, the