1972 — Page 198

Page 198 of 206

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

on behalf of the Civic Association Elected Members to express to you and to the other Official Members our appreciation of the cooperation you have given to us in the past.

We may not have agreed on many matters, but we have all worked together in a spirit of mutual tolerance and respect, and with an over- all desire to serve the public interest.

May I also welcome back to the Council our good Friends, Brook BERNACCHI, Henry Hu and Peter C. K. CHAN, who have been re- elected. I am very sorry indeed that my colleague Mr. Henry WONG was not elected.

At this year's Urban Council election, I have been most dis- appointed at the small number of voters who went to the polls. Not that it was unexpected, but the fact that the Urban Council had been revamped and the electorate had been completely re-registered last year was some ground for hope that more people would have voted this year than in 1971,

Such did not happen and I believe that it is desirable for a Com- mittee to be appointed to investigate into what more steps should be taken by the Government to have a larger turn-out at the polls in 1975.

Some of the suggestions which ought to be considered are:

(1) Increasing the number of Elected Members and to have them

elected on a ward basis;

(2) Introducing automatic registration of the several hundred

thousand people entitled to vote, and

(3) Making voting compulsory by law.

I would urge that such a Committee be set up at the earliest pos- sible date, either by the Central Government and/or by this Council itself.

Otherwise we shall have the same dismal turn-out in 1975 as we have had at this year's election.

Thank you.

MR. A. de O. SALES (In English):-Sir, on a point of clarification, 1 have consistently advocated in public and in Select Committee that there should be compulsory voting in Hong Kong and I am glad that after the lapse of so many years my elected friends have caught up with me.

(Laughter).

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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On 1st April the Council is entering into a new era. In the cir- cumstances, it would seem right for me, as Chairman of the Recrea- tion and Amenities Select Committee, to record the progress made since 1955 and to thank the Official Members, the departmental staff and my colleagues for the great contribution which they made towards this significant achievement.

First, there is the striking increase in open space for recreation and the number and variety of public facilities for this purpose.

Indeed, total open space available for public use in the urban areas increased from 175 to 991 acres while the number of public grounds from 10 to 328, children's playgrounds from 4 to 208, and various games courts and pitches from 20 to 387 in all. Also, 32 tennis courts, 6 running tracks and 6 district swimming complexes containing 33 pools have been built, all where none existed before. The first multi-purpose games hall has been constructed at long last but at least thirteen more are needed in our other districts. One more swimming pool is under construction at Kennedy Town and another complex at Tai Wan is in an advanced state of planning. More pools are projected to reach our target of one complex for every 250,000 of the population. The popularity of our swimming pools can be mea- sured by the over 3.6 million attendance during the past year.

Also planned are our first public Chinese garden and adventure playground, the first indoor stadium and the largest outdoor stadium, a sports training centre and velodrome, and the Morrison Hill Indoor Sports Centre.

Of course, all such physical sports facilities must be properly managed. Hence, we intend to set up a recreation service with district recreation officers. Our amenity areas must be safe places for fun and relaxation; there must be sufficient qualified staff on the ground to ensure that the public will not be prevented from using them to best advantage.

Secondly, over many years, a large-scale programme of tree, shrub and flower planting in public places has been systematically carried out. Successful as this programme has been yet, in the long term, education against vandalism and for civic pride is essential,

Thirdly, as an innovation, Council started various public enter- tainment programmes several years ago and this new activity was an unqualified success at once. Attendance figures this year exceeded million and were about 200,000 greater than the previous year. We must go to the people with wide-ranging and properly organized pro- grammes of entertainment to make life more pleasant for all but partic- ularly in the densely populated districts.