being financed partly by the Government and partly from Colonial Development and Welfare funds. In the spring the Government constructed a pier at Silver Mine Bay on the eastern coast of Lantao Island. This has been an important development for Lantao which, because of its mountainous character and the difficulty of transport from one village to another, has hitherto been somewhat neglected. Silver Mine Bay is the most natural point of communication for villagers wishing to go or send their produce to Hong Kong and it is hoped that the island's production, particularly of pigs and to a lesser extent vegetables, will be stimulated. Conversely the additional ease with which Hong Kong residents can reach Silver Mine Bay is expected to lead to building development in the area which is already famous for its splendid bathing beach. In the second part of the year, after the typhoon season, work was started on a new pier at Cheung Chau, a small island with a population of over 22,000, one of the most important fishing centres in the New Territories. The pier is being built with Colonial Development and Welfare assistance and its construction is being combined with a piece of reclamation to improve the overcrowded little island's harbour frontage which at present, when there are many junks in port, becomes seriously congested. It is hoped to have the Cheung Chau scheme completed before the 1952 typhoon season. Preparatory work has begun on the other pier to be built with Colonial Development and Welfare assistance, which is at Tai O at the western end of Lantao Island. The main work will commence there in the autumn of 1952.
In 1950 the Secretary of State for the Colonies advanced £5,000 to enable the Government to carry out borings preparatory to This money submitting full estimates of the cost of these new piers. This was not used, the Public Works Department having found it possible to carry out the borings economically from their existing votes, and as a consequence a request was made to London for this money to be used for a different purpose. The Secretary of State approved of the recommendation the Government put forward and the £5,000 is now being used to maintain a small survey party to examine the immediate hinterland of the various new pier sites and make recommendations for new roads and small town lay-outs, with a view to making the maximum use of the improved communications.
An irrigation engineer, recommended by the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, was employed to submit proposals for improving existing irrigation throughout the New Territories and extending areas of cultivation wherever this is possible. As a result of the engineer's work the Government hopes to be able to submit before the summer of 1952 a detailed request, complete with
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