OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR ORGANIZATION
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number of local village girls have been employed. The large iron mine situated in the hills beneath the peak of Ma On Shan employs almost entirely immigrant labour from North China. Other smaller mines employ local labour.
The industries more truly typical of the New Territories are the operation of salt pans, the preparation of salt-fish, fish-paste, beancurd, soya sauce and preserved fruits, the burning of coral and sea-shells for lime, brick manufacture, shipbuilding and repairing, stone quarrying and leather manufacture. On Ping Chau, in the Southern District, there is a match factory, for which, as a sideline occupation, villagers on neighbouring islands make hand-prepared match-boxes. In all the fishing towns a substantial section of the land population earns a livelihood by providing restaurants and shops, chiefly used by the floating popula- tion.