the current rate for daily paid labour. Forestry lot holders are moreover encouraged to prepare and sow seed-beds to raise their own planting stock. All thinnings are first marked by the Forestry Department after which the trees are cut and sold by forestry lot holders. This arrangement which has now been in operation in this locality since 1947, has met with very warm approval, but other districts in the New Territories were not willing to participate.
During 1947, for the first time in many years, roadside trees were planted along many of the thoroughfares of Kowloon, but the absence of tree guards and the wilful damage caused by passers-by in breaking off the leaves and uprooting the stakes caused many of the trees to fail. In 1948/49 larger trees were planted and protected by tree guards constructed from angle-iron pickets obtained from the Military Authorities with much more satisfactory results.
A small experimental tung oil plantation
plantation (Aleurites montana) started in 1947 near Shatin has made very favourable progress. The ability of these trees to retain their fruits through two moderately strong gales experienced during the year was most encouraging. There are now over 15,000 trees in the plantation.
As a result of the order prohibiting entry into areas in the immediate vicinity of the reservoirs, many of the most pleasant walks on Hong Kong Island are now no longer open to the Public. Keen walkers can however visit Taipo Kau forestry reserve (entrance opposite to milestone 131⁄2 on the Taipo Road) where a very pleasant series of walks up to seven miles long has been recently laid out.
MINING AND MINERAL RESOURCES
There are few places in the world comparable in area to Hong Kong (391 square miles) which have such a varied geological record. Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks are all represented, but it is the igneous rocks, ranging from granites to rhyolites, which are the most widespread. A wide range of economic minerals has been formed. Not all have been located in sufficiently large deposits to be worth working but it is possible that modern prospecting methods may reveal valuable finds in the future. Unfortunately, much of the Colony is covered by a thick lateritic type of decom- posed rock which effectively masks the solid geology below.
The principal minerals so far identified in the Colony are: kaolinite, argentiferous galena, wolframite, molybdenite, garnet, pyrite, mica, magnetite, haematite, cassiterite, fluorspar and quartz. However, the chief minerals mined to date, either by modern European methods or traditional Chinese surface scratchings, are kaolin, lead, iron and wolfram.
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