INDUSTRY AND TRADE
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industry's exports during the year represented 52% of the Colony's exports of domestic products. In all sectors of the textile industry, the manufacture and processing of cotton goods predominates; wool, silk and artificial fibres taking a very secondary place.
The cotton spinning mills, operating over 614,000 spindles, are amongst the most up-to-date in the world and first-class amenities are generally provided for workers. Cotton yarn counts range from 10s to 60s carded and combed in single or multiple threads. Production of all counts in 1961 was estimated at approximately 200,000,000 lbs, the greater part of which was consumed by local weaving establishments.
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In the piecegoods weaving "section, which has increased its capacity during the past year to about 18,700 looms, grey cotton drill, canvas, shirtings, striped poplins, ginghams and other bleached and dyed cloth and prints are the main items. The weaving of cotton corduroy expanded during the year. Production of cotton piecegoods in 1961 was estimated at approximately 550,000,000 square yards, most of which was exported, although, as the quality of locally woven and finished cloth improves, there is an increasing tendency for the Colony's garment manufacturers to use local materials. Other products of the Colony's weaving industry are silk and rayon brocade of traditional Chinese design, woollen piecegoods, tapes, military webbing, lace, mosquito netting, cotton open mesh, carpets and rugs.
Development in the dyeing, printing and finishing of cotton textiles has been less rapid than in other sections of the industry, but has shown a marked advance during the past few years. Multi- colour printing, pre-shrinking by several processes under licence and polymerizing for the production of 'drip-dry' fabrics are undertaken for use by the local garment industry and for export.
An almost unlimited range and variety of garments are manu- factured in Hong Kong, the most important being shirts. Embroidered blouses, underwear and nightwear, silk and brocade house and evening coats have a world-wide popularity in quality markets. Custom and mail order tailoring, principally of men's suits, has rapidly developed in recent years into an important branch of the industry. Suits of excellent cut and quality are ex- ported all over the world. The Colony's knitting mills produce towels, tee-shirts, singlets, underwear and nightwear, swimsuits,