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seed (Pinus Massoniana) were broadcast on the more exposed hillsides of the Colony. De-forestation of the hillsides causes soil erosion which has serious consequences in catchment areas and near reservoirs. Priority in the reafforestation program- me was therefore given to such areas. The department was also responsible for the clearance of brushwood in places where mosquitoes might otherwise breed and for the removal of vegetation bordering and encroaching on the main roads. Such work had been wholly neglected during the Japanese occupation.
During the year an experiment in the growing of tung-oil trees was started; nurseries were prepared and young trees (Aleurites montana) grown there were budded with a view to their being established in plantations in the hills near Kow- loon. This is the tree from the seeds of which wood-oil is extracted.
MINING.
Minerals come last on the list of Hong Kong's primary products. What little mining is done is entirely in the New Territories. The workings are all on Crown land which has been leased to the several companies for periods varying from 10 to 75 years. Only five small mines are at present being worked; one produces lead and silver, two are working wolfram deposits with indifferent success and the other two produce kaolin and magnetite respectively. The silver, lead and wolfram are mined mainly for export to Europe, while the whole produce of the magnetite mine is sold to the local cement works. Japan was the market for kaolin before the war and preparations are being made for the resumption of this export trade. The mines vary considerably in type and extent from surface workings to quarries and in the case of the wolfram mines to deep penetrations into the hillside by adit and cross-cut. There was before the war considerable prospecting activity but deposits have so far proved small and veins irregular.
INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION.
The main range of industrial production in Hong Kong has been briefly indicated in the introduction to this chapter. Engineering and shipbuilding are the only heavy industries and the bulk of the Colony's production is in the light industry field. It is almost entirely in Chinese hands, most of the factories being Chinese owned and managed. The outbreak of war with Germany had a stimulating effect on the Colony's industries, particularly on the larger dockyards and on those local factories which were able to undertake the manufacture of war equipment; during the war against Japan industrial activity in the Colony was brought virtually to a standstill. By the end of 1946 the recovery of production capacity varied from 20-50% of pre-war levels. Industry had been
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