ENG-1959 — Page 210

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

Altogether, in 1959, four square miles of detail survey were completed at a scale of 1/600 and over seven square miles at a scale of 1/1,200, requiring 365 miles of detail traverse.

These surveys form the basis for further scale plans which are required for planning, land records, and other purposes and which are redrawn from photographic reductions.

The first recorded levelling in the Colony was carried out by H.M. Surveying Vessel 'Rifleman' in 1866 when a copper bolt was driven into the wall of a store house in the Royal Naval Dockyard and its height determined as 17.833 feet above principal datum. All levelling in the Colony is based on this principal datum which is approximately 3.9 feet below Mean Sea Level. In order to supplement the existing network of levels based on this datum, 13 miles of precise levelling establishing 80 Bench Marks and 24 miles of ordinary levelling for spot heights and other levels were completed during the year. The demand for large scale contour plans continued to increase, substantial surveys being required for new development areas in the New Territories, for reservoirs and for other schemes. During the year over 2 square miles were surveyed and plotted at scales varying from 1/600 to 1/2,400.

The Survey Division also made surveys for, and prepared 933 lease plans and 309 surrender plans, for the Land Registry, and set out 8 miles of road and building lines.

HOUSING

Previous Annual Reports have referred to the grave housing problem in Hong Kong, a problem accentuated by an influx of around one million people over the past ten years.

Housing in the urban areas falls broadly speaking into the following main categories: high-standard accommodation in houses and apartments, floors in tenement buildings, low-cost accommoda- tion usually of multi-storey construction, resettlement areas and estates, and squatter huts. The rural population and the boat people have their own type of dwellings. Each group has its problems and a major difficulty in tackling the housing problem has been the lack of reliable data on the size and make-up of the population, the amount of accommodation available, and the accurate projection of statistics.

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