POPULATION
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continuous settlement dating from the late 11th century. Some of the villages on Lantau date back to the late 13th century.
The Hakka people began to enter this region at about the same time as the first Cantonese, or possibly even before. The latter were, however, the more successful settlers and in areas where both groups live side by side the Hakka are now always found upstream, along foothills, and generally on poorer land.
The Tanka people have been in the region since time unknown and are the principal seafaring people of South China, owning large sea-going junks and engaging in deep-sea fishing. They speak their own distinctive dialect of Cantonese. During the past few years, young men and women of the Tanka community have begun to take factory jobs and thousands have now moved their homes ashore.
The Hoklo people, like the Tanka, have been in the area since time unknown. Their name suggests that they originated from Fukien Province (Hokkien), but this is probably a misnomer, Fukien being only one of their places of origin. They are tradi- tionally boat-dwellers and are mostly found in eastern waters. In some places, they have lived ashore for several generations.
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With rapid urbanisation of certain districts in the New Territories, notably Tsuen Wan where large resettlement and low-cost housing estates have been built, an increasing number of families have moved to these satellite towns from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The total population of the New Territories on census day was 693,915 including 28,215 boat people. The principal centres of population are Tsuen Wan (267,670), Shap Pat Heung (49,029), Tuen Mun (46,361), Tai Po (44,040), Sheung Shui (36,480) and Fan Ling (33,640).
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THE CENSUS AND STATISTICS DEPARTMENT
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The department was set up in December 1967 to collect and co-ordinate government statistics. The planning and execution of the 1971 Population and Housing Census overshadowed all other work of the department during the year. The census of the floating population was taken during the Lunar New Year period when the fishing people traditionally return to port for the festival; January 23 was census day. The land census was taken some six weeks later on March 9.
For the 1971 census, over 21,000 people were employed on enumeration duties, most of them being school teachers and
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