292
GEOGRAPHY
Raid Precautions put the figure at about 1,600,000. On the re- occupation of the Colony in 1945 the Japanese sponsored Hong Kong News estimated the population at 650,000. Today many unofficial estimates are much higher than three million, but an accurate figure will be available after the census of March 1961. The bulk of the population comes from the neighbouring Chinese province of Kwangtung. It consists of Cantonese, easily the largest group, followed by Hakka, Hoklo and Tankas. Since 1949 many have come from other parts of China, especially Shanghai. Not all of Hong Kong's phenomenal increase is due to immigrant population. The natural annual increase of officially registered births over deaths is close to 100,000. By far the largest number of people (possibly 80 per cent or more) lives around the coastal fringes of the harbour, where the abundance of human beings strikes the visitor most forcibly. The population of Hong Kong is described in Chapter 2 in greater detail.
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
The parts played by agriculture and fishing in the economy of Hong Kong are nowadays usually obscured or overshadowed by trade and industry. Measured in terms of cash, however, agri- culture makes a substantial contribution to the Colony's wealth, for the annual value of production is thought to be well over $200,000,000, although only 50 square miles of the land area can be used for cultivation profitably. Fishing supports one of the largest single sea-fishing communities in the world. More than 60,000 people live on boats and are engaged in the industry and more than 150,000 depend on the industry in various other ways. The annual value of production is about $60,000,000. Mining is also remarkably well developed and varied for such a small area. The principal minerals exploited are iron, lead, tungsten, graphite and clay. The iron mine at Ma On Shan produces about 10,000 tons a month. Again Chapter 7 gives more detail.
Industrial expansion in Hong Kong since the Second World War has been tremendous and is still continuing. An official Labour Administration Report of 1939 stated that 948 factories of all types had been registered: in 1955 there were 2,925 and in 1960 well over 5,000. These figures do not give the total number of