ENG-1962 — Page 378

SPORT AND RECREATION

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at Chinese New Year the annual fair was held on the hard-surfaced games area in Victoria Park.

By arrangement with the bands of the police, the military regiments stationed in Hong Kong, the St John Ambulance Brigade and other local organizations, regular concerts were held in public parks and playgrounds in the urban areas. The model boating pool in Victoria Park is very popular and a similar pond has been completed in the Fa Hui Park in Kowloon. The Victoria Park swimming pool, built to Olympic standards, is very popular, especially with children. Admission fees are very reasonable and special arrangements can be made for groups of school children and children sponsored by welfare agencies. The total number of persons who used the pool in 1962 was 303,906 (156,545 children and 147,361 adults).

The department is also responsible for the development and maintenance of gardens and places of public recreation, for the tending of trees and ornamental gardens in public places in the urban areas, and for the clearance of undergrowth at road junctions to improve traffic visibility. It also provides vantage points_from which the scenery can be enjoyed.

The botanical branch of the gardens section of the department continued to take care of, and to add to, the collection in the Government Herbarium started 120 years ago. It also kept in touch with institutions abroad and dealt with phytosanitary control of live plants and plant produce leaving the Colony.

In addition to the two existing places of cultural and historical interest (the Sung Wong Toi Garden and the Lei Cheng Uk Tomb and Garden), a new rest garden was formed at Lomond Road on the probable site of an ancient Chinese temple and palace, dating from the Sung dynasty. After World War II, the temple was found in ruins with only the stone gateway remaining intact. To preserve the gateway, this garden was laid out together with a commemora- tive inscription.