INDUSTRY AND TRADE
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overhaul, and work is received from twenty four countries as far afield as Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Miscellaneous. Traditional handicrafts such as carving in ivory, jade and precious stones, embroidery, lace and fine needlework, the manufacture of brass, pewter and other metal ornaments, flourish in the Colony side by side with the more modern types of industries.
TRADE
The Colony's external trade in 1959 was substantially greater than in 1958, and the values of both imports and exports in- creased. The combined value of imports and exports in 1959 was $8,226.91 million which represents an increase of $644.38 million over the 1958 figure of $7,582.53 million, a rise of 8.5%. Cargo tonnages by all means of transport rose from 7,376,471 in 1958 to 7,551,996 in 1959.
In 1959 the total exports from the Colony were completely separated for statistical purposes into exports of local produce or manufactures and re-exports. Comparison with previous years is thus in many cases not possible as in no previous year has such a breakdown been made. In the following paragraphs on trade, therefore, only total exports are compared with those for-1958.
The value of total exports in 1959 was $3,277.54 million, an increase of $288.74 million or 9.6% over the total for 1958. The United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada all in- creased considerably the value of their purchases from Hong Kong while the value of purchases by Indonesia, Thailand, and China continued to decline; this has been the trend over the past several years. Four countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaya and Japan took 51% of the value of the total; the coun- tries of the Commonwealth took 40%. Textiles and clothing together accounted for 42% of the total and miscellaneous manu- factures a further 9%,
In 1959 exports of the produce and manufactures of Hong Kong accounted for some 70% of total exports and were valued at $2,282.13 million. They were sent chiefly to the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaya which imported 53% of the total value of local exports. Textiles and clothing were the main items of local products and comprised 53% of the total value of such