1973 — Page 35

Urban Council Proceedings 市政局議事錄 All AI Reviewed

Page 35 of 212

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR (In English):-Mr. Chairman, Members of the Council, I am most grateful for this invitation to meet you and so enabling me to salute the new-style Urban Council. Its inauguration is an important and happy event, and I do wish you all success in your work.

The work of this Council, and the particular field it covers, has always struck me as of crucial importance to the happiness of Hong Kong. I am amazed by people who deprecate the Council's role, or say, as some have said, that it has no importance or effect on the daily lives of the population. On the contrary, in my view, much of what it handles is what matters most to many people for much of the time. Hygienic food and restaurants - its importance is self-evident. Clean streets and a clean environment and a clean appearance to the city - consider what the recent campaign has done for so many people; consider too the effect on them if the new-found cleanliness were to be dissipated. Parks to relax in - in most cities these are mere pleasure grounds, but in closely packed Hong Kong they are an absolute social necessity. They are also intensely difficult to build, and I will watch with great interest how you solve the problem of how to construct parks and gardens that can be used by the numbers that wish to do so and yet stay inviting, green and unsoiled. I am sure you would succeed. Playgrounds - obviously they give pleasure, but I entirely agree with what so many Members of this Council have said that they are of immense social importance and that there are far too few of them. I should add here, in parenthesis, that in a mini-blitz during and subsequent to the "Keep Hong Kong Clean" campaign about 45 new sites for recreation areas have been formed or found, and 32 additional provisional sites have been located. The beach facilities and guards you manage are vital services, and the swimming complexes must be amongst the finest civic amenities in the world. Then there is the field of civic entertainment. In recent years and months, both the Hong Kong Festivals and the Festival of the Arts have proved the hunger of people in Hong Kong for cultural relaxation and enjoyment, and I hope that the Council will continue to expand the imaginative services it already provides and provides for all tastes.

The list of your activities is of course much longer, but the point I want to make is that in some cities these sorts of services can be taken as a matter of course, but for Hong Kong real excellence in these fields can go so far to mitigate the hardships of a densely packed population, just as failure could make them almost unendurable.

I believe that the new arrangements for the Council will give it new financial and administrative freedom. With the sheets eased as it were, the ship should gather way. If this is how you feel at this moment, I think the moment is opportune and I will tell you why.

As you, Sir, were kind enough to acknowledge, the Government is committed to social advance on a broad front. The will and the means are there and the sectors covered so far are: education, particularly provision of universal secondary education and the overhaul of the examination system which this will permit, and the considerable expansion of technical education. Secondly, housing: a vastly expanded programme based on a new concept and directed by a new unified authority with a single Government department working to it. Thirdly, the phased expansion of the social services so as progressively to provide a system of social security, underpinned by a specially trained cadre of professional social workers. Fourthly, the reconstituted Medical Development Advisory Board will report by the end of July on plans for further development in the next 10 years, including the enormous programme necessary to provide medical facilities for the new towns and New Territories and to consolidate and improve what has already been achieved in the urban areas. There are of course many other problems to be tackled. There are crime and corruption to be mastered: there is the problem of narcotics, the most intractable and baffling problem of all. There is the problem of our traffic and our motor cars, the need for off-street parking and the need (within the Council's own responsibility) for proper markets for people who are now called hawkers, and the need to co-ordinate the solution of these interconnected problems. Above all there is the need to maintain the expansion of the prosperity of this city on which all else depends.

Our plans for advance in most of the major fields I mention are already laid or in well advanced preparation. If this effort is accompanied by decisive advances in the field of the Urban Council, and I know how determined you all are to achieve this, I think that once our plans are mature, and inexorably this will take time, we should find ourselves on the edge of really significant new developments. Broadly speaking, our city will then have the assurance that provided our prosperity lasts some of the major defects in the life of Hong Kong as we know it will be eliminated within a measurable time, and that a term has been put to the makeshift conditions forced upon Hong Kong by the influx of population in the '50s and early '60s.

May I say how grateful I am for the advice which some of you have been kind enough to give me, and how much I admire the Council's devotion to our community. I like the verve and vitality of the Council and its members, and I am sure you are now going to make things

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Page 35 of 212 HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR (In English):-Mr. Chairman, Members of the Council, I am most grateful for this invitation to meet you and so enabling me to salute the new-style Urban Council. Its inauguration is an important and happy event, and I do wish you all success in your work. The work of this Council, and the particular field it covers, has always struck me as of crucial importance to the happiness of Hong Kong. I am amazed by people who deprecate the Council's role, or say, as some have said, that it has no importance or effect on the daily lives of the population. On the contrary, in my view, much of what it handles is what matters most to many people for much of the time. Hygienic food and restaurants - its importance is self-evident. Clean streets and a clean environment and a clean appearance to the city - consider what the recent campaign has done for so many people; consider too the effect on them if the new-found cleanliness were to be dissipated. Parks to relax in - in most cities these are mere pleasure grounds, but in closely packed Hong Kong they are an absolute social necessity. They are also intensely difficult to build, and I will watch with great interest how you solve the problem of how to construct parks and gardens that can be used by the numbers that wish to do so and yet stay inviting, green and unsoiled. I am sure you would succeed. Playgrounds - obviously they give pleasure, but I entirely agree with what so many Members of this Council have said that they are of immense social importance and that there are far too few of them. I should add here, in parenthesis, that in a mini-blitz during and subsequent to the "Keep Hong Kong Clean" campaign about 45 new sites for recreation areas have been formed or found, and 32 additional provisional sites have been located. The beach facilities and guards you manage are vital services, and the swimming complexes must be amongst the finest civic amenities in the world. Then there is the field of civic entertainment. In recent years and months, both the Hong Kong Festivals and the Festival of the Arts have proved the hunger of people in Hong Kong for cultural relaxation and enjoyment, and I hope that the Council will continue to expand the imaginative services it already provides and provides for all tastes. The list of your activities is of course much longer, but the point I want to make is that in some cities these sorts of services can be taken as a matter of course, but for Hong Kong real excellence in these fields can go so far to mitigate the hardships of a densely packed population, just as failure could make them almost unendurable. I believe that the new arrangements for the Council will give it new financial and administrative freedom. With the sheets eased as it were, the ship should gather way. If this is how you feel at this moment, I think the moment is opportune and I will tell you why. As you, Sir, were kind enough to acknowledge, the Government is committed to social advance on a broad front. The will and the means are there and the sectors covered so far are: education, particularly provision of universal secondary education and the overhaul of the examination system which this will permit, and the considerable expansion of technical education. Secondly, housing: a vastly expanded programme based on a new concept and directed by a new unified authority with a single Government department working to it. Thirdly, the phased expansion of the social services so as progressively to provide a system of social security, underpinned by a specially trained cadre of professional social workers. Fourthly, the reconstituted Medical Development Advisory Board will report by the end of July on plans for further development in the next 10 years, including the enormous programme necessary to provide medical facilities for the new towns and New Territories and to consolidate and improve what has already been achieved in the urban areas. There are of course many other problems to be tackled. There are crime and corruption to be mastered: there is the problem of narcotics, the most intractable and baffling problem of all. There is the problem of our traffic and our motor cars, the need for off-street parking and the need (within the Council's own responsibility) for proper markets for people who are now called hawkers, and the need to co-ordinate the solution of these interconnected problems. Above all there is the need to maintain the expansion of the prosperity of this city on which all else depends. Our plans for advance in most of the major fields I mention are already laid or in well advanced preparation. If this effort is accompanied by decisive advances in the field of the Urban Council, and I know how determined you all are to achieve this, I think that once our plans are mature, and inexorably this will take time, we should find ourselves on the edge of really significant new developments. Broadly speaking, our city will then have the assurance that provided our prosperity lasts some of the major defects in the life of Hong Kong as we know it will be eliminated within a measurable time, and that a term has been put to the makeshift conditions forced upon Hong Kong by the influx of population in the '50s and early '60s. May I say how grateful I am for the advice which some of you have been kind enough to give me, and how much I admire the Council's devotion to our community. I like the verve and vitality of the Council and its members, and I am sure you are now going to make things Page 35 Page 36

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Page 35 of 212 .] HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR (In English):-Mr. Chairman, Members of the Council, I am most grateful for this invitation to meet you and so enabling me to salute the new-style Urban Council. Its inauguration is an important and happy event, and I do wish you all success in your work. The work of this Council, and the particular field it covers, has always struck me as of crucial importance to the happiness of Hong Kong. I am amazed by people who deprecate the Council's role, or say, as some have said, that it has no importance or effect on the daily lives of the population. On the contrary, in my view, much of what it handles is what matters most to many people for much of the time. Hygienic food and restaurants its importance is self-evident. Clean streets and a clean environment and a clean appearance to the city- consider what the recent campaign has done for so many people; consider too the effect on them if the new-found cleanliness were to be dissipated. Parks to relax in-in most cities these are mere pleasure grounds, but in closely packed Hong Kong they are an absolute social necessity. They are also intensely difficult to build, and I will watch with great interest how you solve the problem of how to construct parks and gardens that can be used by the numbers that wish to do so and yet stay inviting, green and unsoiled. I am sure you would succeed. Playgrounds--obviously they give pleasure, but I entirely agree with what so many Members of this Council have said that they are of immense social importance and that there are far too few of them. I should add here, in parenthesis, that in a miniblitz during and subsequent to the "Keep Hong Kong Clean" campaign about 45 new sites for recreation areas have been formed or found, and 32 additional provisional sites have been located. The beach facilities and guards you manage are vital services, and the swimming complexes must be amongst the finest civic amenities in the world. Then there is the field of civic entertainment. In recent years and months, both the Hong Kong Festivals and the Festival of the Arts have proved the hunger of people in Hong Kong for cultural relaxation and enjoyment, and I hope that the Council will continue to expand the imaginative services it already provides and provides for all tastes. The list of your activities is of course much longer, but the point I want to make is that in some cities these sorts of services can be taken as a matter of course, but for Hong Kong real excellence in these fields can go so far to mitigate the hardships of a densely packed population, just as failure could make them almost unendurable. I believe that the new arrangements for the Council will give it new financial and administrative freedom. With the sheets eased as it HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL were, the ship should gather way. If this is how you feel at this moment, I think the moment is opportune and I will tell you why. 5 As you, Sir, were kind enough to acknowledge, the Government is committed to social advance on a broad front. The will and the means are there and the sectors covered so far are: education, particularly provision of universal secondary education and the overhaul of the examination system which this will permit, and the considerable expansion of technical education. Secondly, housing: a vastly ex- panded programme based on a new concept and directed by a new unified authority with a single Government department working to it. Thirdly, the phased expansion of the social services so as progressively to provide a system of social security, underpinned by a specially trained cadre of professional social workers. Fourthly, the reconstituted Medical Development Advisory Board will report by the end of July on plans for further development in the next 10 years, including the enormous programme necessary to provide medical facilities for the new towns and New Territories and to consolidate and improve what has already been achieved in the urban areas. There are of course many other problems to be tackled. There are crime and corruption to be mastered: there is the problem of narcotics, the most intractible and baffling problem of all. There is the problem of our traffic and our motor cars, the need for off-street parking and the need (within the Council's own responsibility) for proper markets for people who are now called hawkers, and the need to co-ordinate the solution of these interconnected problems. Above all there is the need to maintain the expansion of the prosperity of this city on which all else depends. Our plans for advance in most of the major fields I mention are already laid or in well advanced preparation. If this effort is accom- panied by decisive advances in the field of the Urban Council, and I know how determined you all are to achieve this, I think that once our plans are mature, and inexorably this will take time, we should find ourselves on the edge of really significant new developments Broadly speaking, our city will then have the assurance that provided our prosperity lasts some of the major defects in the life of Hong Kong as we know it will be eliminated within a measurable time, and that a term has been put to the makeshift conditions forced upon Hong Kong by the influx of population in the '50s and early '60s. May I say how grateful I am for the advice which some of you have been kind enough to give me, and how much I admire the Council's devotion to our community. I like the verve and vitality of the Council and its members, and I am sure you are now going to make things Page 35Page 36

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Page 35 of 212

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

The work of this Council, and the particular field it covers, has always struck me as of crucial importance to the happiness of Hong Kong. I am amazed by people who deprecate the Council's role, or say, as some have said, that it has no importance or effect on the daily lives of the population. On the contrary, in my view, much of what it handles is what matters most to many people for much of the time. Hygienic food and restaurants its importance is self-evident. Clean streets and a clean environment and a clean appearance to the city- consider what the recent campaign has done for so many people; consider too the effect on them if the new-found cleanliness were to be dissipated. Parks to relax in-in most cities these are mere pleasure grounds, but in closely packed Hong Kong they are an absolute social necessity. They are also intensely difficult to build, and I will watch with great interest how you solve the problem of how to construct parks and gardens that can be used by the numbers that wish to do so and yet stay inviting, green and unsoiled. I am sure you would succeed. Playgrounds--obviously they give pleasure, but I entirely agree with what so many Members of this Council have said that they are of immense social importance and that there are far too few of them. I should add here, in parenthesis, that in a miniblitz during and subsequent to the "Keep Hong Kong Clean" campaign about 45 new sites for recreation areas have been formed or found, and 32 additional provisional sites have been located. The beach facilities and guards you manage are vital services, and the swimming complexes must be amongst the finest civic amenities in the world. Then there is the field of civic entertainment. In recent years and months, both the Hong Kong Festivals and the Festival of the Arts have proved the hunger of people in Hong Kong for cultural relaxation and enjoyment, and I hope that the Council will continue to expand the imaginative services it already provides and provides for all tastes.

I believe that the new arrangements for the Council will give it new financial and administrative freedom. With the sheets eased as it

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

were, the ship should gather way. If this is how you feel at this moment, I think the moment is opportune and I will tell you why.

As you, Sir, were kind enough to acknowledge, the Government is committed to social advance on a broad front. The will and the means are there and the sectors covered so far are: education, particularly provision of universal secondary education and the overhaul of the examination system which this will permit, and the considerable expansion of technical education. Secondly, housing: a vastly ex- panded programme based on a new concept and directed by a new unified authority with a single Government department working to it. Thirdly, the phased expansion of the social services so as progressively to provide a system of social security, underpinned by a specially trained cadre of professional social workers. Fourthly, the reconstituted Medical Development Advisory Board will report by the end of July on plans for further development in the next 10 years, including the enormous programme necessary to provide medical facilities for the new towns and New Territories and to consolidate and improve what has already been achieved in the urban areas. There are of course many other problems to be tackled. There are crime and corruption to be mastered: there is the problem of narcotics, the most intractible and baffling problem of all. There is the problem of our traffic and our motor cars, the need for off-street parking and the need (within the Council's own responsibility) for proper markets for people who are now called hawkers, and the need to co-ordinate the solution of these interconnected problems. Above all there is the need to maintain the expansion of the prosperity of this city on which all else depends.

Our plans for advance in most of the major fields I mention are already laid or in well advanced preparation. If this effort is accom- panied by decisive advances in the field of the Urban Council, and I know how determined you all are to achieve this, I think that once our plans are mature, and inexorably this will take time, we should find ourselves on the edge of really significant new developments Broadly speaking, our city will then have the assurance that provided our prosperity lasts some of the major defects in the life of Hong Kong as we know it will be eliminated within a measurable time, and that a term has been put to the makeshift conditions forced upon Hong Kong by the influx of population in the '50s and early '60s.

1973 — Page 35

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