With
With approximately four million people in 400 square miles, Hong Kong is far from being able to support itself agriculturally. However, Hong Kong's farmers produce, for example, almost 50 per cent of the Colony's fresh vegetable requirements and more than a third of the fresh poultry. (Production of vegetables has quadrupled and that of poultry increased seven-fold since 1956). Farming covers about 12 per cent of the land area and involves between four and five per cent of the work force, a comparable ratio to that existing in Britain. Life in the New Territories is not, of course, all agriculture. Both local residents and visitors are taking advantage of the increasing leisure of modern life to visit the New Territories' fascinating scenic spots, temples and beaches in ever-growing numbers. Many parts of the New Territories, too, are becoming increasingly important centres of industry. It is farming, however, which is still most charac- teristic of this unique district and various aspects of it are illustrated in these pages.
The District Officer, Yuen Long, Mr J. W. Sweetman, (opposite) chats with children as he does his rounds of a New Territories village.