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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

(4) MR. A. de O. SALES asked the following question:-

As the expansion of the Council's entertainment programme is being held back because there is no portable stage and accoustics shell, will you please tell us whether the Govern- ment has approved the proposal to buy one?

THE CHAIRMAN, URBAN COUNCIL, replied as follows:-

In the 1972-73 draft Estimates, the Council proposed acquiring a mobile performing art centre on wheels, with self- contained stage (16′ wide), canopy, shell, sound and light systems, for the presentation of open-air concerts and theatrical performances in parks, playgrounds and stadia. In considering this proposal, Government asked whether the provision of this centre would do away with the use of temporary stages for various outdoor performances pre- sented by the Council. The Department replied that the provision of the centre would not necessarily eliminate the use of such stages.

The position now is that this request will be considered in the Secretariat outside the context of the draft Estimates, in the light of a comparison of the costs involved in the temporary arrangements made at present and a further examination of the most suitable size of the mobile centre.

MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, surely it must have occurred to the Secretariat that the proposal made by the Council would be to increase the possibilities of serving the public interest in the matter of public entertainment? Whether stages would be required after the purchase of this equipment would be something apart. Should you not, Mr. Chairman, have brought this matter to the attention of the Secretariat, that the intention is to have this equipment as an additional convenience for the expansion of the Urban Council's public programme?

MR. CHAIRMAN:-I think this was inherent, Mr. SALES, in our reply that we would still need temporary stages.

MR. SALES--Then, was it beyond the intelligence of the Secretariat

to have grasped that in the first instance?

MR. CHAIRMAN:-The question is out of order.

MR. SALES: ---Might it be recorded?

(5) MR. J. MACKENZIE asked the following question:-

With reference to the report that Government has granted an area of land of 10,000 sq. ft. valued about $4.5 m. adjacent to the Harbour for the erection of a theatre

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(seating 300 persons), library, offices, exhibition rooms, a restaurant and bars, could this Council be advised:

(i) To what extent these facilities might complement or otherwise relate to similar facilities to be available at the Kowloon Civic Centre and already operating in the Hong Kong City Hall?

(ii) If this Council, or its Cultural Affairs Select Com- mittee, has been consulted by Government concerning the need and best location for such facilities? (iii) Has there been any exchange of views or information between officials of the proposed Art Centre and the City Hall management?

THE CHAIRMAN, URBAN COUNCIL, replied as follows:-

This question relates to cultural facilities provided or to be provided by this Council (vis-a-vis the proposed Hong Kong Arts Centre).

I understand that the Hong Kong Arts Centre will provide facilities which the Council has so far never made any pretence of being able to provide, e.g., hobby-club premises, storage facilities or repositories for instruments, materials or records for such small-scale activities as chamber-music groups, experimental oneman shows, puppets or other such ventures at the stage where they are struggling to get started. The City Hall also does not provide workshops or studios in which to experiment or offices for permanent or exclusive occupation by groups: nor is there scope there for unrestricted rehearsals on the site of the eventual performance. In short, it does not provide the permanent artistic home for the bodies and individuals that the Arts Centre proposes to embrace. In addition, I understand that the centre's auditorium and exhibition rooms will be much smaller than those at the City Hall and the proposed Kowloon Civic Centre. It is therefore believed unlikely that the demands for use of Council facilities will be substantially reduced by this venture. Such facilities as are to be provided at the Arts Centre will therefore be comple- mentary to such facilities as the Council does provide. The Department was consulted by the Secretariat about this proposed Centre and in July 1971 issued an information paper to the Cultural Affairs Select Committee and the Recreation & Amenities Select Committee on the subject (in view of the interest which Members would obviously have in developments of this nature).