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On the average fares from Kowloon to Canton increased over 1938 figures by 500/600 per cent., while freight costs were about 900 per cent. of the 1938 level.
Roads.
The building and maintenance of roads in Hong Kong are subject to unusual topographical and climatic difficulties. In most parts of the Colony the construction of a roadway, by virtue of the hilly nature of the country, involves considerable blasting operations. On the other hand the rock is not diffi- cult to blast and is suitable for road making so that there is no shortage of roadmetal in the Colony. The climatic difficulties are no less considerable, since the heavy downpours of rain which are common during the summer months are sufficient to cause grave damage to any road surface which falls short of a high standard of maintenance and the repair of the damage once caused is liable to be made more difficult and expensive by further rains. In spite of these difficulties Hong Kong is reasonably well served with roads. Although the total area of the Colony is only 390 square miles, over 400 miles of roads are maintained, 173 miles of which are on the island of Hong Kong, 106 in Kowloon, and the remainder in the New Territories. About 90% of these roads are of modern metalled construction. Although little damage was caused to the roads through actual hostilities, except in the heavily bombed urban areas, it was found when the Colony was liberated that the road system had suffered considerably as a result of neglect during the occupation. A number of bridges in the New Territories which had been demolished by the retiring British forces in 1941 remained unrepaired; the better quality roads surfaced in concrete or tarred macadam had suffered com- paratively little damage but waterbound macadam roads were found to be in very poor condition. Little repair work was done by the Japanese beyond the surfacing of certain short portions of road with poor quality concrete. The fact that the damage during the occupation was not greater can be attributed in part to the fact that traffic during the occupation was light, and the heavy traffic which was soon resumed after the re-occupation greatly accelerated the process of deterioration caused by lack of maintenance during the war years. Two new roads - both in the New Territories were built during the Japanese occupation and an attempt was made to construct a new bridge at the frontier; this bridge either collapsed or was never completed. One road to the top of the Colony's highest mountain, Tai Mo Shan, was built to serve a Japanese early-warning radar station set up on the top of that mountain, whilst the other new road, which leads to a large village named Saikung, was designed to facilitate Japan- ese military operations against the Chinese guerillas who operated in the eastern areas of the New Territories. Both roads are useful and will be maintained.