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up behind the concrete surface because the outlet valves were jammed tight, as a result of corrosion and other causes; so the embankment blew out.

7. Normally, regular inspection of such slopes could not be expected necessarily to give early warning of such a crisis; routine inspection would have discovered these defective outlet valves but I am advised that, in all probability, the slope would still have collapsed as the outlets would have been hard put to it to cope with this volume of water even if they had been operating properly.

8. My Works Division has put in hand a complete survey of all such slopes in our estates, to check their general condition, and in particular to remove all outlet valves, and replace them in due course with wire-mesh covering. This survey should be completed in the next week or two. We now much prefer turfed slopes, planted with shrubs with good root systems, because then there is no interference with the free movement of water, and none of the estates slopes which are now turfed will be concreted.

9. Mr. Kenneth Lo has suggested that we should provide a better standard of fittings in new resettlement blocks, and anticipate the readiness of tepants to pay a rather higher rent for such improve- ments. I think Members are all aware of Government's decision to build future resettlement blocks to low-cost housing standards, a deci- sion taken in 1970 but which of course could not be applied to various blocks where current planning or contract work had reached such an advanced stage that it was not possible to introduce variations. For example, the blocks now being built at Sau Mau Ping and Lam Tin, which will be completed about August next year, will be the last ones built in the separate resettlement style. The next group of resettlement blocks, at Hing Wah (for which the contract should shortly be let) will be exactly the same as low-cost housing blocks.

10. This low-cost housing design incorporates better fittings than the earlier marks of resettlement blocks, such as hollow-core flush doors, painted and beaded, at both the corridor entrance and between the room and the verandah; louvre windows; cooking bench, and pedestal-type toilets.

11. Some of these better fittings are in fact being provided in some of the blocks recently completed and in some of those new building, it having been possible to introduce last-minute variations in the con- tracts; but Mr. Lo's criticism is nonetheless valid. We have, as he says, gone on for too long providing rough wooden doors and shutters that most tenants reject; and I am sure that he will share the satisfaction in my department that these primitive fittings will soon be a thing of the past.

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12. We are likewise looking into the question of making other improvements in the general finish of rooms before they are handed over to tenants; I refer to such things as better wall and ceiling finishes and better floor finishes, which would substantially cut down the amount of work the tenant has to do to make his room a pleasanter place to live.

13. Mr. Henry WONG said that there is no doubt that there is still a serious shortage of public low cost housing and that this shortage is demonstrated by the fact that over 190,000 families are on the waiting list for allocation, and he went on to say that Government should exert still greater effort to accommodate all (and I quote him) "legiti- mate applicants". The problem is to identify what makes an applicant legitimate; we know where we stand with our resettlement categories since these involve people who have either become suddenly homeless due to some emergency or other, or have been cleared from land required for development. Once we go beyond these categories, and look at the waiting list, it seems to me not at all surprising that there are 190,000 families on the waiting list when one considers that the rentals charged for low-cost housing are about one-quarter of rentals for comparable accommodation in the private sector. The only surprise is that the waiting list is not very much longer than it is. This of course raises the vexed question of the enormous disparity between rents paid in the public and aided housing sector on the one hand, and in the private sector on the other, and one is bound to ask, what exactly does constitute a reasonable subsidy to this particular section of the community who are lucky enough to get into public or aided housing? Are they contributing something, over and above the costs of their accommodation, capital and running costs, to help towards providing further accommodation for those not fortunate enough to be so housed?

14. Mr. WONG went on to suggest that the occupants of rooms in resettlement estates (as well as of rooms in Low Cost Housing blocks) should be allowed to purchase them on an instalment plan, on the grounds that ownership would relieve them of worries over rent increases. I understand that something similar has been done in Singapore, and I will see whether it is possible to contemplate a similar arrangement in Hong Kong. However, it would seem rather doubtful whether our rental levels--even if we increased them sharply--would ever be so burdensome as to make purchase an attractive proposition to sitting tenants. Then again, we would have to consider the possible effects of such ownership on the management of the estate; would owners of rooms not be much less inclined to co-operate with estates staff? There are obviously many aspects to be looked at, and I will arrange for this to be done as and when other more pressing commit- ments allow.

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