HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
the nature, purport and details of every Government matter affecting their interests, and secondly that in every case the Governor should be accurately informed of what the Chinese in any case, public or private, really wanted or needed or wished to say. In harmony with the first part of this programme, Sir Hercules organized a translation office and secured the publication of correct translations of every decision he made in Chinese affairs, and he went further and established (March 1862) a separate Chinese issue of the Hong Kong Government Gazette. He not only arranged that every Government measure affecting the Chinese residents should be published in this Gazette, but took great pains personally to test the fullness and correctness of the translator's work. Mr. Wilson WANG may be pleased to hear that we hold no strong views on what alternative name S.C.A. may bear, but in answer to Mr. WANG's suggestion regarding the form of S.C.A. I should add that the Public Enquiry Service which I started myself is already part of S.C.A. for two years.
Officers of the S.C.A. work very closely with my colleagues in G.I.S. and also Radio Hong Kong. But bribery and corruption is a criminal offence which should be dealt with in accordance with the law. Mr. BLAKER may also be interested to know that S.C.A. already maintains branch offices, one at Yau Ma Tei for Kowloon West, one at Farm Road for Kowloon East, one at Kwun Tong for New Kowloon, one at Causeway Bay Magistracy for Hong Kong East, one at Sai Ying Pun for Hong Kong West, which the latter maintains there is a sub-office at Tin Wan for Aberdeen and south of Hong Kong, all are operating on a regional basis.
Communication of ideas is a two-way affair. Whether we resort to our vocal cords to produce our voices and amplify them with audio aids, or resort to signs, symbols or words to reduce our thoughts into records, we would still need them to be listened to or read, and above all remembered, if not taken note of, for reference when action is called for. Otherwise voices can still fall on deaf ears, and words or signs or symbols can be wasted. Not many of us have a taste in research studies, still less are talented with skill in research work, and how many research workers emerge as eminent scholars?
Page 209 of 259
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I might be accused of being lazy, if my plea of being really busy is not accepted; but there is a limit to my personal capacities. I guess many people feel the same way as I do. Whatever might have been said, or written, or indeed repeatedly said and may be for tens of thousands of times, with or without visual aids—as in the case of some T.V. commercials—it does not necessarily follow that a listener will take in all the points, however simply or straightforward they are put that the producer might have hoped to put across. The message, if it succeeds in getting across, often turns out to be something vague if not something completely distorted. I have often wondered just how many of us are really interested in what our friends or foes may be saying about things which do not directly and immediately affect us personally. How much of those which have been said and in which we are really interested do really leave a clear impression in our minds? How much time do we have at our disposal to interest ourselves in subject matters which do not appear to affect us instantly.
I am a professional civil servant, and I think I am saying the truth that I devote practically all my working time to communication of ideas, perhaps not entirely between the Government and people, as sometimes I have to do so between my colleagues within the department or within the Government. One often tries to convince one's juniors, less frequently one's seniors. How many times does one succeed in doing so? At times when my communication efforts seem to me to be ineffective, I blame myself for my own inadequacies. Sometimes I wonder if I were right, because at other times it appears that I am more effective than I dare to expect. Like all human problems, much depends on the personal relationship one maintains with a particular person or persons, and so much also depends on the timing, the mood, the circumstances at which a thing is said or a proposition made. This applies equally as between myself and my wife as between my children and myself and my parents and myself. Much more so as between myself and my friends or colleagues, and a great deal more so as between myself and my enemies.
I accept with gratitude and appreciation all the points made by my unofficial colleagues in this Chamber, and pledge myself and my staff, and if I may my civil service colleagues, to do more within our capacities in all these directions; and on top of all these, I would try to persuade my colleagues to add whatever our respective education and experience might have enabled us to offer in our service to our community—a community which we have all learned to love and admire, particularly in the light of the new developments which we all have recently experienced. In saying so, I should stress that there are limitations in these efforts, as in all human efforts.
I guess I have dwelt long enough on the subject of communication, and I now turn to the problems of management of multi-storey buildings, of which the problem of sanitary control within a multi-storey building is but one aspect of a complexity of problems. Management of multi-storey buildings involves physical tasks as well as property rights, and contractual liabilities, all complicated by problems of human relationship. As I see it, and I hope you would all agree with me that problems do not solve themselves simply by a stroke of the legislative pen. In the end, the co-operation of the people concerned is the deciding factor of the success or otherwise of any scheme. Back in September 1966, my former superior and, if I may so treat him, also "my teacher", the then S.C.A. Mr. MCDOUALL, stressed his growing concern about the problems that were arising in the growing number of new
259
Page 209 of 259
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
the nature, purport and details of every Government matter affecting their interests, and secondly that in every case the Governor should be accurately informed of what the Chinese in any case, public or private, really wanted or needed or wished to say. In harmony with the first part of this programme, Sir Hercules organized a translation office and secured the publication of correct translations of every decision he made in Chinese affairs, and he went further and established (March 1862) a separate Chinese issue of the Hong Kong Government Gazette. He not only arranged that every Government measure affecting the Chinese residents should be published in this Gazette, but took great pains personally to test the fullness and correctness of the translator's work. Mr. Wilson WANG may be pleased to hear that we hold no strong views on what alternative name S.C.A. may bear, but in answer to Mr. WANG's suggestion regarding the form of S.C.A. I should add that the Public Enquiry Service which I started myself is already part of S.C.A. for two years.
Officers of the S.C.A. work very closely with my colleagues in G.I.S. and also Radio Hong Kong. But bribery and cor- ruption is a criminal offence which should be dealt with in accordance with the law. Mr. BLAKER may also be interested to know that S.C.A. already maintains branch offices, one at Yau Ma Tei for Kowloon West, one at Farm Road for Kowloon East, one at Kwun Tong for New Kow- loon, one at Causeway Bay Magistracy for Hong Kong East, one at Sai Ying Pun for Hong Kong West, which the latter maintain there is a sub-office at Tin Wan for Aberdeen and south of Hong Kong, all are operating on a regional basis.
Communication of ideas is a two-way affair. Whether we resort to our vocal cords to produce our voices and amplify them with audio aids, or resort to signs, symbols or words to reduce our thoughts into records, we would still need them to be listened to or read, and above all remembered, if not taken note of, for reference when action is called for. Otherwise voices can still fall on deaf ears, and words or signs or symbols can be wasted. Not many of us have a taste in research studies, still less are talented with skill in research work, and how many research workers emerge as eminent scholars?
I might be accused of being lazy, if my plea of being really busy is not accepted; but there is a limit to my personal capacities. I guess many people feel the same way as I do. Whatever might have been said, or written, or indeed repeatedly said and may be for tens of thou- sands of times, with or without visual aids-as in the case of some T.V. commercials—it does not necessarily follow that a listener will take in all the points, however simply or straightforward, they are put that the producer might have hoped to put across. The message, if it succeeds in getting across, often turns out to be something vague if not something completely distorted. I have often wondered just how many of us are really interested in what our friends or foes may be saying about things
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
393
which do not directly and immediately affect us personally. How much of those which have been said and in which we are really in- terested do really leave a clear impression in our minds? How much time do we have at our disposal to interest ourselves in subject matters which does not appear to affect us instantly.
I am a professional civil servant, and I think I am saying the truth that I devote practically all my working time to communication of ideas, perhaps not entirely between the Government and people, as sometimes I have to do so between my colleagues within the department or within the Government. One often tries to convince one's juniors, less fre- quently one's seniors. How many times does one succeed in doing so. At times when my communication efforts seem to me to be ineffective, I 'blame myself for my own inadequacies. Sometimes I wonder if I were right, because at other times it appears that I am more effective than I dare to expect. Like all human problems, much depends on the personal relationship one maintains with a particular person or persons, and so much also depends on the timing, the mood, the circumstances at which a thing is said or a proposition made. This applies equally as between myself and my wife as between to my children and myself and my parents and myself. Much more so as between myself and my friends or colleagues, and a great deal more so as between myself and my enemies.
I accept with gratitude and appreciation all the points made by my unofficial colleagues in this Chamber, and pledge myself and my staff, and if I may my civil service colleagues, to do more within our capacities in all these directions; and on top of all these, I would try persuade my colleagues to add whatever our respective education and experience might have enabled us to offer in our service to our com- munity-a community which we have all learned to love and admire, particularly in the light of the new developments which we all have recently experienced. In saying so, I should stress that there are limita- tions in these efforts, as in all human efforts.
I guess I have dwelt long enough on the subject of communication, and I now turn to the problems of management of multi-storey buildings, of which the problem of sanitary control within a multi-storey building is but one aspect of a complexity of problems. Management of multi- storey buildings involves physical tasks as well as property rights, and contractual liabilities, all complicated by problems of human relation- ship. As I see it, and I hope you would all agree with me that problems do not solve themselves simply by a stroke of the legislative pen. In the end the co-operation of the people concerned is the deciding factor of the success or otherwise of any scheme. Back in September 1966 my former superior and, if I may so treat him, also "my teacher", the then S.C.A. Mr. MCDOUALL, stressed his growing concern about the problems that were arising in the growing number of new
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