1972 — Page 178

334

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

reformed Council all that is best and every success in its onerous tasks.-.-.-. which, in spite of what is said in some quarters, are so vital to the well-being of every citizen of Hong Kong.

It remains for me to place on record my grateful thanks to all Members for all the help and advice they have given me and my Department throughout the year, and for all the time, dedication, thought and straight hard work they put into their Council business. And finally, may I convey my sincere personal thanks to all Members, past and present, for all the consideration, job satisfaction (and often enjoyment) they afforded me during my 5 years as Chairman of these debates. With these remarks, Ladies and gentlemen, I support the motion and I call upon Mr. SALES, the mover of the motion, to exercise his right of reply. (Applause).

MR. SALES (In English):-Sir, four weeks have passed since the Unofficial Members of the Council spoke in this debate. Four weeks have been taken up by our official colleagues to prepare their respective replies. A very witty Urban Councillor suggested to me that this comparison in time, between what is required by Official Members to make up their minds on how they would reply to our speeches and the split-second that is given to the Unofficial Member to exercise his right of reply today, is indeed the measure of the time taken by the Government to despatch business in relation to that required by the general public to do likewise. (Laughter).

Sir, the Unofficial Members of the Council have each one in his or her own way made telling points guided by the desire to be of service to Hong Kong through the medium of this Council. These points are deserving of close study by the Government, not only by the departments represented by the Official Members of the Council, but also by those departments the work of which was dealt with in the speeches. At the same time, I would like to see the Urban Services Department following up the points that were made and reporting to the respective Select Committees whether such proposals as were put forward can be carried out in effect; if so, when; and, if the suggestions cannot be taken up at this time, whether they should be deferred or perhaps even discarded altogether. But one thing is sure:

we, the Unofficial Members, would not like to see, when this debate closes to-day, that it should be the end of the consideration that ought to be given to the various proposals, suggestions and criticisms that were heard. Our Official friends have in turn given some convincing replies. I congratulate them for having given so much thought to what the Unofficials said last month. There is, however, still the need, and I emphasize it again, to follow up the contents of the speeches so that they may not be lost by default as is often the case with public meetings.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

335

Mr. Chairman, the Commissioner for Resettlement deplored the fact that there was no fireworks display in this Council. Perhaps, I ought to remind him, Sir, while wearing another hat as the Chairman of the Festival of Hong Kong Executive Committee, that unfortunately there is a total ban on fireworks-even in this Council. In another context, the Commissioner made a very good point indeed when he said "In those early days Government housed people to clear land, now mercifully it will clear land to house people", this is what the Urban Council has also said for years on end. The Government, in the initial period and then for far too long a time afterwards, gave the wrong reason for doing the right thing. The Government said all along that it was merely resettling people because it wanted to clear the land for public purposes, when in reality housing the people is a good end in itself. It is the duty of the Government in our circumstances to protect the interest of the people by providing housing to the extent that is needed because housing must be a stable factor in their lives; so much hardship could have been avoided in Hong Kong if we had pursued a far more vigorous housing policy. Today, I do not intend to repeat the many observations made in the debate of the Hong Kong Housing Authority in September, but I know I echo the sentiment of this Council when I say that we support the Governor in his wish to go full steam ahead with the rehousing of one million eight hundred thousand people, to start off.

Sir, our Director of Public Works is as usual very frank in his reply to this Council, an attitude which I have in the past commended because it is only through a free and frank exchange of information that we can all work together for the common good. The points that he made about density of population and the need to consider the en- vironment are very dear to us; when the Director is no more a Member of the Council, we know that we will still be able to count on him as a friend to find open spaces for us and also to carry out the many other projects which would make life better for the community as a whole. I endorse his statement that a tremendous amount of work is done in Select Committees where all Members discharge their assign- ments as individuals and not as Official or Unofficial Members, Elected or Appointed. We are there as persons to give of our best and to share our experiences for the good of Hong Kong.

Our Vice-Chairman has made an extremely interesting point in the concluding part of his speech about the great progress that has been I think made as reflected in the "Statement of Aims" over the years. this is a matter we should bear in mind; despite the fact that we ourselves criticize the Council and deplore the lack of progress, there is really a tremendous amount of good that the Council has done, which it is likely to continue to do. But, to turn to another matter, I dare not comment on the health risk he mentioned less I be accused of

Page 178 of 206