1972 — Page 136

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is, open space in Central seems to have overconcentrated in one particular locality, namely to the east of Pedder Street. There are for example the Statue Square, the Edinburgh Place, the Cricket Club and the future Murray Ground. These open grounds, all grouped in one corner, are doubtlessly public appealing, especially in the eyes of visiting VIPs and tourists. One cannot help feeling that these open grounds are virtually meant to be "show windows" to distract attention from the congested slums in other parts of the town, where breathing space is seriously lacking. Whilst I welcome the above facilities, I do consider that there is every justifiability for Government to consider providing more open space as well as recreational grounds to the west of Pedder Street in the general interest of Central residents and office workers. In my opinion, two pieces of land suitable for such development are the Central Market site and the Fire Brigade Building site. Although these two sites are both situated in the so-called "golden mile" region they should give way to better community development.

The Central Market is primarily a major wholesale supplier of primary foodstuffs to other markets, restaurants, food caterers and even to shipping in the harbour. Retail trade done at the Market amounts to only about 20% of the business. In a way, Government is therefore subsidizing heavily wholesale business with public revenue and this situation should be immediately rectified. Government, I am aware, is investigating into the feasibility of resiting the Central Market but how soon this will come true I am in no position to comment. But it is time that consideration should be given to the fact that redeveloping these sites for a recreational purpose does not merely serve to meet a community need but would also help solve other social problems such as traffic and hawkers.

With the Central Market and Fire Brigade Building demolished, Queen Victoria Street could be widened to allow erection of flyovers to connect Queen's Road Central and Connaught Road Central crossing over Des Voeux Road Central. This would help a lot in easing off the traffic flow at the cross-roads. By closing Jubilee Street to traffic, there will be a smoother traffic flow along Queen's Road Central and Des Voeux Road Central. A two-storey structure could then be erected. The ground floor could be used to accommodate cooked-food stalls and small food-caterers with the first floor used for parking and the roof surface as a green area for both office workers and residents in the vicinity.

At the same time, a four-storey structure could be built at the Fire Brigade Building site and extending over Des Voeux Road Central connecting the parking level at the Central Market. This building will provide office space for Government Departments on the ground floor. The first floor should be used for parking and traffic connection and the other upper floors should be put to recreational use providing facilities such as a proper public library to relieve the over-crowded condition in the City Hall.

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Turning to recreational/sporting facilities, one that deserves top priority attention is the provision of a swimming/diving pool with proper training facilities specially meant for students and youths with swimming potentials. Government should not only encourage youths to take up swimming as a pastime but should also make itself responsible for providing potential swimmers with proper training to enable them to compete internationally with both Olympic spirit and standard. I therefore strongly suggest Government do consider building an indoor swimming/diving pool with proper facilities and equipment exclusively for training purposes.

Suitable land for a new pool, I know, may be rare but should not be non-existent. One site I have in mind is the Wongneichung Gap site immediately adjacent to the lot already earmarked for use as tennis courts. The use of the swimming pool, when completed, will be restricted to schools and youth groups on a booking system free of charge or at reasonably low charges. In addition to the new pool, I also wish to see proper coaching facilities made available. This would at least include the recruitment of a qualified coach with a team of assistants, the provision of a proper lecture room with necessary visual aids and equipment. Hong Kong has long suffered, both in swimming and other sports, from the lack of qualified coaches. It is time that this obstacle be removed to make room for progress.

(Mr. Henry H. L. HU left the meeting at this point.)

On the field and track side, the position is even more discouraging and improvements are much wanting. At present, the track often used is the Government Stadium track at Soo Kon Poo, but this track does not meet the standard requirements in that it is slightly too long and it is not "tartan" surfaced. This track, some alleged, is merely a cheap "by-product" of the football pitch and I entirely agree. The recently built track in the Aberdeen Sports Ground has a standard length of 400 metres but for reasons unknown it is also not "tartan" surfaced to meet standard requirements. On the field side, proper high-jump and pole-vaulting facilities are still lacking. The pits available are still sand pits, which were discarded about 15 to 20 years ago in other parts of the world. I remember in 1964 the visiting West German Olympic team refused to use our out-dated sand pits.

In the local sports circle, there are not a few enthusiasts who have been claiming credits for the development of sports in Hong Kong. It has been ages since our experts first came to realize that something ought to be done to improve the standard of local sports by way of, as an initial step, bettering our sporting grounds and facilities as well as providing proper coaching. But regretfully, progress is merely snail-ing ahead. What is the point of keeping pursuing something along a track that will get nobody anywhere. What, I wish to know, has

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