ENG-1962 — Page 231

LAND AND HOUSING

187

during the year $1,709,326 was paid to farmers in respect of 57 acres of cultivation.

For squatters awaiting resettlement there were the usual hazards of rainstorm and fire. Extensive damage to squatter areas occurred when typhoon Wanda passed over the Colony in September (further details can be found in chapter 15). Thirty-three small scale natural disasters occurred in urban squatter areas during the year, of which 24 were fires and nine landslides and floods. In the two comparatively large fires that occurred at Kowloon Chai in January and February this year, a total of 211 huts were destroyed, making 1,419 persons homeless. The total number made homeless by all natural disasters during 1962 was 11,989 and, in accordance with current policy, they were permitted to rebuild their huts either on the old sites or on new ones as close as possible to them. To resettle these persons immediately would have seriously disrupted the general programme of clearance and development.

Each year in October a fresh survey of urban squatter areas is carried out. Huts built before 1954 (or 1956 in the case of roof- tops) continue to be tolerated. New huts are forbidden. No control is kept at present over the number of occupants of tolerated huts and it is the purpose of the survey to determine how many occupants there are. The 1962 return indicated a total of 488,737 squatters in the urban areas surveyed, including 69,504 on roof- tops. Squatters in unsurveyed areas are thought to number some 70,000. New unauthorized huts and unauthorized extensions to existing huts are demolished; during 1962 9,095 such demolitions took place. One thousand two hundred and forty rooftop squatters and pavement hut squatters were resited when the tenements on or by which they were located were demolished for redevelopment during 1962.

The New Territories Administration is responsible for the control of squatters in the New Territories, with the exception of the Tsuen Wan district where control has been transferred to the Resettlement Department. The more accessible parts of the New Territories are regularly patrolled and are divided into prohibited and non-prohibited areas. In the former, such as the margins of roads, layout and development areas, and land exposed to flooding, it is necessary to prevent more squatters from building huts. In