ENG-1960 — Page 205

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LAND AND HOUSING

be approximately $12.50. The Authority has more than enough applicants on its Housing Register to fill all the flats at the So Uk Estate, and the register has therefore been closed for the time being. Applications will not be accepted for the Choi Hung and Ma Tau Wai Estates until construction of these estates is much nearer completion.

RESETTLEMENT

The rapid increase in population since the war, which led to the saturation of conventional housing, meant that for many the only means of shelter was to put up a hut, of any materials that could be had cheaply, on any piece of vacant land. These squatter huts rapidly spread over the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon. In many areas there were colonies of squatters, some with 50,000 or more people living together in a closely-packed mass, with their own shops and schools, and even factories and workshops. Sanita- tion was primitive or non-existent and in these crowded colonies there were frequent fires and the constant threat of epidemic disease. Moreover, the presence of the squatters on the land made impossible the solution of the very problems to which their presence had given rise. The construction of the housing, schools and hospitals needed for the swollen population could not be put in hand because the land required for their development was occupied by squatters.

As early as 1948 squatters had been moved from the central areas to 'tolerated areas' on the outskirts of the town, where they were allowed to rebuild their huts. Later ‘approved resettlement areas' were established where dwellings were required to be built of stone or other fireproof materials to an approved pattern. The tolerated areas had the disadvantage that they reproduced many of the unsatisfactory features of the squatter areas, while the majority of squatters were too poor to be able to build or to purchase the stone cottages required in the approved areas. This difficulty was overcome by the construction of cottages by welfare organizations which rented them to approved settlers, either direct or through Government, or accepted payment for them by instalments. But the fundamental objection remained that this form of resettlement was uneconomic, in both land and money, and could not be used on a scale which would make any impact on the squatter problem as a whole.