ENG-1956 — Page 190

154

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

the Tai Lam Chung scheme. The remaining sites were needed for houses and factories to be built by private enterprise.

The great majority of the squatters cleared were resettled in seven-storey blocks built by the Public Works Depart- ment. At Tai Hang Tung and Li Cheng Uk eighteen such blocks were completed, and good progress was made on the redevelopment of the Shek Kip Mei Estate, where seven- storey blocks are being built to replace the temporary two- storey buildings erected immediately after the Shek Kip Mei fire of December 1953. A fourth estate at Hung Hom in Kowloon is half-finished, and site formation for a fifth estate at Lo Fu Ngam in the north-eastern part of Kowloon is under way. These last two are small estates which will house about 17,000 persons between them, but work is now about to start on a very large estate at Wong Tai Sin, north of Kai Tak Airport, the first stage of which will provide accom- modation for about 63,000 persons.

The administration of these estates, which may house as many as 55,000 persons, presents special problems, particu- larly as the inhabitants were all formerly living in insanitary squatter areas which were beyond the reach of the normal urban administration. As in every community there are some undesirable elements in these congested resettlement estates, but there is no doubt that the great majority do appreciate what is being done for them by Government and are respond- ing to the efforts of the staff to train them to be decent, law-abiding citizens of Hong Kong. One indication of this is the fact that out of $3,322,187 due in 1956 as rent for rooms in the resettlement estates bad debts amounted to only $1,213.

The annual revenue collected from the estates is sufficient to cover all administrative and maintenance costs, and also to provide for the recovery of the original capital costs (on the basis of a nominal charge of $10 per square foot for the land) in 40 years, with interest at 31% per annum.

Particular attention has been paid during the year to the problem of providing employment for resettled persons, or