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PRIMARY PRODUCTION
the training of fishermen for certificates of competency as local masters and engine operators, and the instruction of local fishermen in navigation. As an adjunct to extension work, through the Fish Marketing Organisation, schooling facilities are provided for the children of fishermen. Fourteen schools have so far been established and some 3,800 children were being educated at these at the end of 1971. A further 177 were attending other schools on scholarships provided by the organisation.
Loans are available to the agricultural industry through four separate loan funds: the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Loan Fund, the J. E. Joseph Trust Fund, the World Refugee Year Loan Fund and the Vegetable Marketing Organisation Loan Fund, which are all administered through the Agriculture and Fisheries Department. At December 31, 1971, the total loans issued and recovered since the inception of these four funds were in the order of $59,990,215 and $55,733,142 respectively.
The Fisheries Development Loan Fund, administered by the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries, is allotted specifically for the development of the distant water fleet, for which it has a capital of $5 million. The World Refugee Year Loan Fund for Co-operative Societies, made available in 1954 by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, also assists members of fishermen's co- operative societies. Further credit facilities are available to fishermen through the revolving loan fund of the Fish Marketing Organisation. This fund was established in 1946 and has made loans totalling $36 million; of this, some $32.33 million had been repaid by the end of the year. The fund's ceiling was raised to $4.5 million in 1971. The organisation also administers a revolving loan fund of $110,000 financed by the Co-operative for American Relief Everywhere, specifically for shrimp fishermen.
Co-operative societies operate under a Co-operative Societies Ordinance, which provides for the appointment of a Registrar (currently the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries) whose staff supervise and assist co-operative societies and encourage the forma- tion of new ones. Farmers and fishermen have been foremost in accepting the co-operative movement, while local civil servants form another major sector with the establishment of non-terminating co- operative building societies with financial aid from the Government. The versatility of the movement is evidenced by the formation of primary societies with such diverse objects and activities as vegetable marketing, pig raising, agriculture and fisheries credit, better living, thrift loan, housing and the supply of consumer goods. In addition,