HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
provided, the duplication of efforts and the wastage of public funds. How can we, for example, expect to solve the hawker problem and keep a pleasant environment if we do not even provide market facilities for a resettlement estate with a population exceeding that of a township in the United Kingdom? How can we expect satisfaction from the residents in a remote estate if public transport still falls far behind their need years after completion of the estate?
I am afraid, Mr. Chairman, that I have sounded too pessimistic a note about this Council and the many government departments represented on this Council. It would be unfortunate if I had conveyed the impression that this Council had made no achievement at all. Quite to the contrary, this Council can justifiably feel proud of its record of achievements particularly when these were made despite the weaknesses which I have outlined. We have been pressing for reforms for many years and in this connection, I would like to point out that the reforms badly needed are those capable of making this Council more efficient but not those merely giving a false impression of expansion and authority.
With these remarks, Sir, I have the pleasure in supporting the Motion before this Council. (Applause).
MR. PETER P. F. CHAN:- Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the Motion before Council and I like to join my colleagues in making some comments.
In one of the most recent Council meetings, I had asked a question on the possibility of providing for additional lecture room and committee room facilities in our City Hall complex. I presume that members of the public will share my opinion that it is extremely difficult to hire the concert hall (fully booked to March next year) and the theatre (fully booked also to March next year) and my recent experience shows that it is even now impossible to book the lecture rooms and committee rooms for business meetings and meetings of various voluntary bodies. The extra-murals of our two universities have recently monopolized all these rooms. While so much of taxpayers' money had been spent on our two universities, they should use their own premises for most of the extra-murals, thereby sparing some facilities of the City Hall to the general public. Even in November 1971, the extra-murals have made advance bookings of lecture rooms. It appears to me that this is not at all fair to the general public.
Very recently rumours arose on the bookings of our concert hall and theatre, which did not convince me at all. But to ensure good administrative practice I would like to see that bookings on which 25% hire had been paid and which are subsequently cancelled should be made to organizations on a waiting list specifically kept for such purposes. Those organizations which are eager to hire the concert halls or theatre for some functions which they want to organize at very short notice, are requested to pay a reasonable amount of deposit to maintain their names on such list. This will ensure that no bookings which are being cancelled will be mishandled. That measure should be adopted when our concert hall and theatre are so popular. People nowadays seldom go to commercial cinemas to have their speech days and cultural activities and speaking from my experience, commercial cinemas are generally uninterested in that kind of business. Therefore it is very important that we should build our community hall as soon as possible.
My colleague Mr. P. K. NG had expressed his concern over one man monopolizing the principal funeral parlour facilities in Hong Kong. In the meantime, there is no anti-trust laws in Hong Kong and I cannot see what measures should we take. There is however, as I can observe, no immediate danger in spite of some rise of charges probably due to increase of costs of all supplies and services in Hong Kong, as the management seems to be in reasonable hands. Mr. Solomon RAFEEK in answer to the Hong Kong Standard mentioned that there was no application for funeral parlours in the past five years, but this may be due to no land being made available and due to withdrawal of plans on account of objection by residents in the area of the site designated for a funeral parlour. In the meantime, the persons suffered from possible monopoly would not be very poor people and the matter, as I have already requested, may be dealt with by the select committee concerned.
My learned colleagues have touched on many important Urban Council matters before me, therefore I like to comment on some current problems.
My Friends, Dr. Denny HUANG and Mr. Henry Hu proposed in this Council an early introduction of Chinese as the official language. My Friend, Mr. John BLAKER rightly said to me that there was really no legal provisions in our books that English was the official language, although, of course, in certain ordinances, certain proceedings and certain records were to be conducted and kept in English. Very recently I had attended a computer orientation course and the instructor demonstrated how the Americans programme a computer to translate Chinese into readable and understandable English by persons who cannot even read any Chinese character in fractions of the time that may normally be taken to do the job by conventional methods. This system had been developed in the past ten to twenty years to be used by the Americans to understand within the shortest possible time the intelligence coming out from China. There is no secret in such soft
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provided, the duplication of efforts and the wastage of public funds. How can we, for example, expect to solve the hawker problem and keep a pleasant environment if we do not even provide market facilities for a resettlement estate with a population exceeding that of a township in the United Kingdom? How can we expect satisfaction from the residents in a remote estate if public transport still falls far behind their need years after completion of the estate?
I am afraid, Mr. Chairman, that I have sounded too pessimistic a note about this Council and the many government departments represented on this Council. It would be unfortunate if I had conveyed the impression that this Council had made no achievement at all. Quite to the contrary, this Council can justifiably feel proud of its record of achievements particularly when these were made despite the weak- nesses which I have outlined. We have been pressing for reforms for many years and in this connection, I would like to point out that the reforms badly needed are those capable of making this Council more efficient but not those merely giving a false impression of expansion and authority.
With these remarks, Sir, I have the pleasure in supporting the Motion before this Council. (Applause).
MR. PETER P. F. CHAN:-Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the Motion before Council and I like to join my colleagues in making some
comments.
In one of the most recent Council meetings, I had asked a question on the possibility of providing for additional lecture room and com- mittee room facilities in our City Hall complex. I presume that mem- bers of the public will share my opinion that it is extremely difficult to hire the concert hall (fully booked to March next year) and the theatre (fully booked also to March next year) and my recent experience shows that it is even now impossible to book the lecture rooms and committee rooms for business meetings and meetings of various volun- tary bodies. The extra murals of our two universities have recently monopolized all these rooms. While so much of taxpayers' money had been spent on our two universities, they should use their own premises for most of the extra murals, thereby sparing some facilities of the City Hall to the general public. Even in November 1971, the extra murals have made advance bookings of lecture rooms. It appears to me that this is not at all fair to the general public.
Very recently rumours arose on the bookings of our concert hall and theatre, which did not convince me at all. But to ensure good administrative practice I would like to see that bookings on which 25% hire had been paid and which are subsequently cancelled should be
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
309
made to organizations on a waiting list specifically kept for such pur- poses. Those organizations which are eager to hire the concert halls or theatre for some functions which they want to organize at very short notice, are requested to pay a reasonable amount of deposit to main- tain their names on such list. This will ensure that no bookings which are being cancelled will be mishandled. That measure should be adopted when our concert hall and theatre are so popular. People nowadays seldom go to commercial cinemas to have their speech days and cultural activities and speaking from my experience, commercial cinemas are generally uninterested in that kind of business. Therefore it is very important that we should build our community hall as soon as possible.
My colleague Mr. P. K. NG had expressed his concern over one man monopolizing the principal funeral parlour facilities in Hong Kong. In the meantime, there is no anti-trust laws in Hong Kong and I cannot see what measures should we take. There is however, as I can observe, no immediate danger in spite of some rise of charges probably due to increase of costs of all supplies and services in Hong Kong, as the management seems to be in reasonable hands. Mr. Solomon RAFEEK in answer to the Hong Kong Standard mentioned that there was no application for funeral parlours in the past five years, but this may be due to no land being made available and due to withdrawal of plans on account of objection by residents in the area of the site designated for a funeral parlour. In the meantime, the persons suffered from possible monopoly would not be very poor people and the matter, as I have already requested, may be dealt with by the select committee concerned.
My learned colleagues have touched on many important Urban Council matters before me, therefore I like to comment on some current problems.
My Friends, Dr. Denny HUANG and Mr. Henry Hu proposed in this Council an early introduction of Chinese as the official language. My Friend, Mr. John BLAKER rightly said to me that there was really no legal provisions in our books that English was the official language, although, of course, in certain ordinances, certain proceedings and certain records were to be conducted and kept in English. Very re- cently I had attended a computer orientation course and the instructor demonstrated how the Americans programme a computer to translate Chinese into readable and understandable English by persons who can- not even read any Chinese character in fractions of the time that may normally be taken to do the job by conventional methods. This system had been developed in the past ten to twenty years to be used by the Americans to understand within the shortest possible time the intelligence coming out from China. There is no secret in such soft
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