184
COMMUNICATIONS
flags. A Port Welfare Committee ministers to needs of crews of visiting ships, co-operating with religious and other organizations devoted to this work. This committee administers the Merchant Navy Sports Club in Kowloon. In 1964 $258,580 partly donated privately and partly by a government subvention was made available for port welfare purposes. The dockyards undertake in addition to new construction, repair work and conversions, and the surveys necessary under the international maritime safety conventions and other laws. The Hong Kong Registry of shipping lists over 520 vessels under the British flag, totalling some 835,000 gross register tons, of which 149 ships are of over 500 tons gross.
Vast numbers of small craft operating in the harbour create special problems. There are over 20,000 of them and more than 7,500 are mechanized. The person in charge of any mechanized craft must have a local certificate of competency as master or engineer. The standard of examinations is continually_being raised which helps to improve handling and safety precautions in small craft and accounts in part at least for the remarkably low accident
rate.
In the thriving trade with Macau and adjacent Chinese ports cargoes are carried mainly in towed lighters or junks. The principal imports in this trade consisted of building materials, vegetables and fruits, sea products and foodstuffs while the chief exports are fertilizer and foodstuffs. Trade within Colony waters includes sand for building purposes which is brought in from outlying districts while outward cargoes from the harbour area mainly comprise building materials, cotton bales, dangerous goods and foodstuffs.
The shipbreaking industry remained stable during the year. Twenty-four ships totalling 159,283 gross tons which had out-lived their usefulness were broken up. Laid-up shipping continued to use the Colony waters, but less so than in previous years.
The series of typhoons during the year caused damage to shipping. In Viola the first, five ships ran aground. During the passage of Ida in August four vessels broke adrift from their moorings and three of them later went aground. The most destructive typhoon of the year was Ruby which struck the Colony on 5th September and caused 16 vessels to run aground and three to sink, two unfortunately with loss of life. The survivors from one of the sunken ships were rescued, under adverse conditions of sea and wind, by the Royal