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and sex.
Each junk master was required to give details of his boat and personnel before he received a loan on their behalf. At the same time everything that was possible was done to provide the fisherfolk with salt, rice, kerosene and other essential commodities. These initial gestures encouraged fisherfolk who had left the Colony during the occupation to return with their junks at an early date.
Post-war Reorganization.
During the period of internment in Stanley Camp, a new scheme had been planned for the setting up of a Department of Fisheries and the reorganization of the fishing industry. The new plan was based on the establishment of two organizations; a Fisheries Department to be financed by the Government, and a Fisheries Co-operative designed to be self-supporting. Until such time as the Co-operative was capable of running itself it was to be under the guidance and direction of the Fisheries Department. The primary object of the new organisation was to ensure that the fisherman received a fair price for his fish and that the profits went to him, the producer, rather than to the middlemen. The Government established by statute a wholesale fish market in which all marine fish, whether fresh or salted, had to be sold.
Fisheries Co-operative and Syndicates.
The Fisheries Co-operative organization was built up on a very simple plan. In each of the main fishing villages a district organization called a syndicate was established.
The first four were opened in September, 1945, in the four main fishing centres of the Colony; four more syndicates were started during 1946 and there remained at the end of the year two more projected syndicates not yet opened. The main wholesale fish trade was concentrated in the Government fish market on Hong Kong Island and in August, 1946, a small additional wholesale market was established at Tai Po to serve the northern part of the Territories. A third market is in due course to be opened in Kowloon. Each village syndicate has several functions, the primary one being the collection of the fish from the fisherman and the transportation of the fish from the village where it is landed to the market. The necessary land and water transport for this purpose is being gradually acquired. Each syndicate also serves as a food and stores depot where rice, flour, salt, ice and other commodities are sold to the fishermen at the lowest possible prices and as a sort of bureau where advice can be given to the fisherman on the numerous problems which confront him. It serves too as a centre for social welfare and education. Vernacular schools have been opened for the children of the fisherfolk at the four main villages, and the daily attendance is over 1,100. These schools are at the syndicates' head- quarters and their establishment was made possible by grants