54
EMPLOYMENT
Whampoa Dock Co Ltd, public utility companies, and several other firms. Their apprentices are encouraged to attend technical classes, and financial assistance is often given by paying fees. Some large spinning and weaving mills operate apprentice schemes for mechanics or junior engineers and arrange classes on their own premises in both technical and general educational subjects.
The Technical Education and Vocational Training Standing Committee met three times during the year.
NEW TERRITORIES
Farming and fishing are the two principal occupations in the New Territories. Rice is the traditional crop, and used to be cul- tivated to the virtual exclusion of all other farm produce. In recent years, however, there has been a marked trend towards the pro- duction of vegetables and other crops, and pigs and poultry are now reared on a large scale. Local seafaring employment is de- scribed in Chapter 7.
The pattern of country life in the New Territories has been increasingly altered by the diversification of agriculture, by im- migration and by the growth of industry and commerce. Large numbers of villagers have gone overseas to seek employment as seamen, cooks or waiters or to settle in other countries, par- ticularly the United Kingdom and the United States. More recently there have been opportunities of employment in North Borneo and elsewhere in south-east Asia for semi-skilled and agricultural workers from the Colony. Thus remittances from overseas have come to form an increasingly important factor in the economy of the New Territories; it is known, for example, that postal and money orders to the value of $5,329,826 were cashed at the six New Territories Post Offices in 1960, compared with $2,582,359 in 1959 and $1,216,595 in 1958. Large numbers of holiday-makers from the urban areas and tourists from overseas have also become a welcome new source of income.
Trade is centred on the markets, some of which are rapidly being transformed into substantial towns, attracting population from the urban areas. The scale of agricultural and industrial development in the New Territories has increased greatly during the last three years; a large proportion of the labour force for both public and