1977 — Page 109

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

sooner we and the Government realize that the average citizen in Hong Kong likes to eat at the cooked food stall, the sooner a more realistic policy will emerge. Having said this, the street traders, especially the cooked food stalls in good localities, ought to be charged a realistic figure. Some cooked food stalls make literally thousands dollars a month net profit. They are in their own way a fairly big concern and it is unfair both on the Council and on the shopkeepers not to charge them a realistic figure for the space they occupy. The cost of hawker licences therefore should be increased. But in return we must give protection to our licensed hawkers, and not regard them as a nuisance that is just tolerated in Hong Kong. There should be a realistic policy that does give real protection to our licensed hawkers, and a force, may be the police, or the hawker control force, or the special duty teams that not only sees they abide by the law, but offers them suitable protec- tion from unlicensed competition. In Westminster City Council to which I had the pleasure to lead the delegation from the Urban Council earlier in the year, the Council has a waiting list of new hawker applicants for the streets set aside for hawking, which might be adopted by this Council rather than the complete ban on new hawking. This ban is at present leading to the numerous unlicensed hawkers, partic- ularly of cooked food. More investigation also should be done in the selling of live fresh fish. That type of hawking goes on in numerous places and could and should be publicly controlled by licensing, which incidentally will add more revenue to the Council!

The final part of my speech will be devoted to public housing. I am one of the eight members of this Council on the Housing Authority, which is a development from the old Housing Authority where all members of the Council were automatically members of the Housing Authority. Also the management of all the old resettlement estates, was at one time under this Council. Now eight members constitute the largest single block of members of the Housing Authority and there are even more members co-opted onto its committees. Indeed the Housing Authority could well be said to be the members of this Council and certain other persons with, at present, an official Chairman, the Secretary for Housing. In addition, five out of the six committees of the Housing Authority are chaired by Urban Councillors. Yet, as an Urban Council, we have the audacity to say that public housing has been taken away by the Governor from the Urban Council. Of course, it has not. The eight members of the Urban Council are specifically appointed to the Housing Authority because they are members of the Urban Council. The trouble is that they do not work as a body, but only as individuals. There is uncertainty as to whether or not the minutes of the Housing Authority meetings can be disclosed to other members of the Council.

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Whether they can or not, in my submission, the Council should know the policy of the Housing Authority and should, through their repre- sentatives, have a constant interest in those policies. Because the price of land and buildings is so high in Hong Kong, public housing is a vital necessity to the average citizen. Do members know even the priorities of public housing? Is it known that people on the waiting list are constantly being put back in favour of people displaced from clearances, sometimes being undertaken by Government purely for putting the cleared site up to a land auction and selling to the highest bidder? Does this Council know and approve that there is still no distinction made in land clearances between the wealthy and the poor, that all are offered public housing, whereas on the waiting list there are certain very stringent maximum income levels? Does the Council approve of the new rent policies? Does a ward Councillor who is not on the Housing Authority, have the foggiest notion where to refer specific enquiries about public housing from tenants or applicants? I suggest that you, Sir, as Chairman, obtain permission to circulate all members with this type of information to which, in my submission, they are entitled. The Council should at all time cooperate with the Housing Authority in making Hong Kong a better place to live in. With those few remarks, I support your motion.

(Mr. Peter C. K. CHAN arrived at this point.)

THE HON. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN (in English):-Mr. Chairman,

Cultural Activities

In the past few years, the Urban Council has played a predominant role in the development of culture in Hong Kong.

The Urban Council not only gives strong support to the annual Hong Kong Arts Festival but also sponsors the Asian Arts Festival, the third of which will be held in 1978.

While the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra has not yet reached the standard of the national orchestras of some of our Asian neighbours, I am hopeful that with the joint support of both the Urban Council and the Central Government, the Orchestra will show even greater progress in the next few years.

It is gratifying to see that Government is now taking a more active role in cultural activities, such as giving support to the Hong Kong Conservatory of Music and introducing music appreciation to students at an early age. While Hong Kong is still behind Japan and Korea in