GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
A large part of the New Territories, both islands and mainland, is steep and barren. Before the war considerable areas were afforested,
were afforested, but one of the unfortunate results of the occupation of the Colony by the Japanese was the felling of the vast majority of the trees for firewood, with the consequence that now only a few isolated woods remain, principally in the vicinity of villages. Systematic re-afforestation has been going on steadily since the end of the war. The highest point is the mountain called Taimoshan (3,141 feet) which lies seven miles north-west of Kowloon. To the North-west of this mountain and extending to the marshes on the verge of Deep Bay stretches the Colony's largest area of cultivable land. The eastern half of the New Territories mainland is covered by irregular mountain masses deeply indented by arms of the sea and narrow valleys. Wherever cultivation is made possible by the presence of flat land and water, villages exist and crops are raised. Intricate terracing brings the maximum of land under cultivation and the Chinese farmers, though ready to adopt any modern methods which are suited to local conditions and whose value has been demonstrated to them by practical tests, find in fact that there are few directions in which their traditional methods can be improved.
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The New Territories include 75 adjacent islands many of which are uninhabited. Productive land is scarcer than on the mainland and the island population includes many fisherfolk living aboard their boats. Lantao, the largest island, is well watered, but the gradients are such that there is little cultivation. Wild boar and barking deer abound among the well- wooded ravines and scrub-covered spurs of this lonely island. The rest of the islands are much smaller, and
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