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ware and this information I hope, may help Dr. HUANG and Mr. Henry HU in their campaign, which however should be done, in my opinion, slowly and step by step. Any undue hurry and hot head decisions would not be good to the interest of the people of Hong Kong,

Another problem recently voiced by the leaders of the community is on legalized gambling. I had long been an advocate of such measure purely on welfare and economic grounds. Each weekend we can visualize thousands of dollars which Hong Kong earns by hard work and good government to elsewhere, never to return. While one may find it easier to go to Macau (about one hour) than to return from the New Territories on Saturday and Sunday evenings (may be one and a half or even two hours) through the Sha Tin pass, there is nothing that we can do to prevent those residents who like to try their luck in the casinos or in dog racing from going taking with them hard cash from Hong Kong. If we can legalize gambling, such flow of cash can be checked to some extent and the cash can be brought into useful pur- poses in another form. Those persons who are against such legaliza- tion always express their fears that Hong Kong may suffer. As a matter of fact, Hong Kong is suffering by millions of dollars a month by "cash flow" to Macau and by vanishings into illegal societies. They also compared gambling with floods and wild animals. That is what we were taught in schools. But by building dams, human beings can con- trol flood to generate power and by keeping wild animals in zoos, the young generations may learn nature. The same thing applies or may apply to gambling. We can restrict the qualifications of residents who may gamble or we can devise laws on gambling by employees, and dozens of other safeguards. Those persons standing up against legaliza- tion always said that suicide rates may go up. As a matter of fact the rate of suicide is probably even higher in Hong Kong than Macau, Monte Carlo and Las Vegas where people can walk into casinos freely. If the money so saved is applied to public assistance scheme we may have less worries and less appeals made to this Council. My impres- sion from experiences in ward attendances is that basically poverty forms the roots of almost all problems coming up to the Councillors. Richer persons to whom this Council has given more favour probably than it should, are generally represented legally.

Mr. Chairman, I support the Motion. (Applause).

(Mr. James M. H. WU left the meeting at this point).

Public Housing Department

MR. RAYMOND Y. K. KAN:-Mr. Chairman, today I wish to speak on public housing, what our aims should be and what we have to do to ensure that we keep abreast, if not in front, of the needs of the com- munity.

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I will not say much about our past achievements as I have already done so at our Annual Debate, last year, and on many other occasions. I would just say that these achievements in low-cost housing and resettlement have been excellent and perhaps unparalleled anywhere in the world.

However, we have now come to the stage where we need to thoroughly re-examine our original policies, plans and operations because, at present, in spite of what we have done, we are experiencing an acute housing shortage in all types of accommodation. This is probably due to the lack of long-term and short-term planning of sufficient flexibility to meet the changing housing needs of our com- munity and to the little co-ordination between private real estate de- velopers and the Government and semi-Government housing agencies, such as the Housing Authority, the Housing Society, the Hong Kong Model Housing Society, etc. Furthermore, the present set-up of these agencies is haphazard and uneconomical and very little co-operation exists among them.

The Resettlement Department is responsible for the main stream of Government housing programmes, the resettlement estates. As far as development of these estates is concerned, this Department has an excellent record. The first resettlement estate at Shek Kip Mei com- pleted in December, 1954 originated as a means to house those who were made homeless in a disastrous fire. Then the programme is con- tinued to accommodate mainly those who have to vacate their homes due to the clearance of Crown lands and licensed areas for development purposes; or to the demolition of dangerous buildings or to natural disasters such as fire, typhoons, etc. In addition, pavement and service lane squatters are entitled to resettlement accommodation. The depart- ment has also to provide flats for families on compassionate grounds, i.e., those who are recommended by the Social Welfare or Medical and Health Department, a policy and action which in my opinion has been up until now not altogether a success.

In all these cases all are resettled without regard to their family income, a point I do not think many will agree. As a result, well-to-do families or those who can afford and should stay in Government low- cost housing, Housing Authority flats or even private tenements are accommodated in resettlement estates to the detriment of the really needy. A socially unfair and economically unsound situation is there- fore created. Besides, families with however little income cannot apply for resettlement. I contend, Mr. Chairman, a new and just criterion for resettlement and, indeed, all subsidized housing, therefore, should be total family income and housing needs. Any family whose income falls within a certain bracket should be entitled to certain class of subsidized housing. Perhaps a means test is essential in this respect.

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