REVIEW OF THE YEAR
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given in August to an enlarged scheme of development in the New Territories (D.2539), which incorporates two smaller schemes (D.1661A and D.1952A) connected with irrigation and preliminary work on the improvement of communica- tions. The grant is for £263,500, made on the understanding that 15% of the cost of the entire programme undertaken will be contributed by the Hong Kong Government.
The main features of the programme are the construction of a light motor road on Lantao Island, starting at Silver Mine Bay and running to Pui O, thence along the south coast in the direction of Shek Pik. This will be the first road on the island. Four piers are proposed-at Tung Chung, Kei Ling Ha, Tap Mun and Kat O-and a number of feeder roads linking more remote areas with the existing road system. Irrigation improvements will bring more marginal land under cultivation in many parts of the New Territories.
Another grant approved during the year, and to be administered by the University, amounts to £80,781 for the construction of a Pathology Building. From the Colonial Development and Welfare Allocation for Higher Education in the Colonies a grant of £200,000 for the 5-year period beginning April 1955 has been approved. This is to be used for the construction of a new Library.
WEATHER
Due to the Colony's dependence on rain for virtually its total water supply, the weather is often an important item of news. 1955 began with a period of severe drought. No rain fell between mid-November 1954 and the beginning of April 1955. During this exceptionally long dry season, in January, the Colony had one of its rare experiences of frost. In the Kam Tin Valley the temperature fell to 26°F; and throughout the New Territories a large part of the sweet potato crop, a principal means of rural subsistence, was lost. When rain finally came, it was unusually heavy, causing a number of landslides and house collapses, involving several deaths. The total rainfall was above average, but it unfortunately came in three or four short periods of downpour, which meant that much of it was wasted. Urban water consumption has gone up since 1954, and as a result, towards the end of the summer, Hong Kong and Kowloon water restrictions