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the Education Department, and other organizations, can formulate a plan which will capture the minds of estate residents, particularly the young people, there will not only be an improvement of living environ- ment, but young people will become involved and committed in the service of their community.

Should the Improve Your Environment Campaign achieve a reason- able measure of success, its most valuable contribution will be that it will have inculcated among voluntary groups within each district a sense of participation and involvement, and a certain confidence that they can and will make changes to improve their living environment. If necessary, the campaign may have to be spread over a period of 2 to 3 years in order to register maximum impact and achieve satisfactory results.

I would hope that whatever is being done in the urban areas by the Health Education Select Committee will also be implemented by Government adapted to conditions in the towns and villages in the New Territories.

Public Housing

On the subject of public housing, I woud propose to Government that commencing from 1972 or at the latest by 1973, Estates under the resettlement programme should be managed by the Housing Authority and I am referring to new estates, Mr. Chairman. The type of manage- ment provided by the Housing Authority is somewhat more expensive but the results in terms of better living environment would be well worth the extra cost.

It cannot be denied by Government that a very high proportion of juvenile delinquency, rape cases by young people, gang fights, primary school drop-outs, and other youth problems are to be found in resettlement estates. Furthermore, it is an undeniable fact that in old and new resettlement estates, hawkers and illegal squatters con- stitute one of the major problems for the Resettlement Department staff, a problem which for a number of reasons the Housing Authority has been able to keep under control. An improved living environment will go a long way to give young people a more viable chance to grow up as responsible citizens rather than as juvenile delinquents, dope- pedlars, or social outcasts.

Considering the limited manpower and comparatively low pay of Resettlement Department staff, it is surprising that the Resettlement Department is able to provide that much management control in all resettlement estates. If it is borne in mind that many expert assistants in commercial firms and factory workers are today earning more than

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most Resettlement Assistant Officers who must manage estate blocks with several thousand residents in each of them, it would seem very necessary for Government to review now the pay scales of Resettlement Department staff. On many occasions, Resettlement Department staff are threatened with physical violence in the exercise of their duty, with the result that no having adequate protection against physical violence they are unable to take the firm measures required to preserve a clean and healthy living environment within the resettlement blocks for which they are responsible.

We know that Government is now beginning to move in the direction of reconversion of the older resettlement estates to provide more decent living accommodation for the residents in these older estates. The first reconversion that is being studied now is at Shek Kip Mei Resettle- ment Estate. If Government should go ahead with this reconversion scheme, I hope that by the time reconversion is completed, management of the reconverted Shek Kip Mei Estate will be taken over by the Housing Authority.

I would urge Government to take up immediately with the Housing Authority the feasibility of organizing several in-training classes for Resettlement Department staff so that by 1972 there will be a sufficient number of trained personnel up to Housing Authority standards who would serve in new Resettlement Estates handed over to the Housing Authority for management in 1972 and thereafter. After re-training in line with Housing Authority standards, the salary scales of Resettle- ment Department staff should be on the same level as those of the Housing Authority.

The programme of resettling the several hundreds of thousands of people who are classed as eligible for resettlement will continue for many years yet. However, it is desirable that there should be increasing emphasis upon providing public housing of a better quality, and for which those who are resettled would I believe be prepared to pay slightly higher for better management.

For the small number of families who are so desperately poor that they cannot afford the rent, sufficient assistance should be given by the Public Assistance Scheme.

One point I would like to make about the Public Assistance Scheme is that the sum of $70 per month per person is absolutely parsimonious and does not reflect well at all on a rich colony like Hong Kong. The latest statistics indicate that for an average household of 5.6 persons, the average monthly expenditure per person is $153 per person, out of which at least $69 gces for ford expenses. It would seem more humanitarian for the Public Assistance Scheme to give a minimum of $100 per month per person especially in the case of aged persons.