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RECREATION AND THE ARTS
related activities. It is a non-statutory trust fund, administered by a board of trustees of 12 members. The fund awarded 133 grants and eight scholarships totalling $1.9 million in 1989, enabling young people to study music and dance abroad and also assisting local schools and organisations to acquire musical instruments and dance equipment.
Books Registration Office
The Books Registration Office is responsible for the enforcement of the Books Registration Ordinance (Chapter 142), which stipulates that all publishers should submit copies of all new publications to the office for registration. These books are dispatched to depository libraries for permanent preservation after processing. The details of the registered books are then published quarterly in the Hong Kong Government Gazette.
In 1989, the office registered a total of 7 140 books - 4 534 in English, 2 520 in Chinese, and 86 in other languages. 6 094 periodicals were also registered.
In order to assist the publishing trade in Hong Kong, the office acts as an agent for the International Standard Book Numbering System. During the year, 106 publishers' identifiers have been issued at the request of publishing houses.
Antiquities and Monuments Office
The Antiquities Advisory Board, established by law in 1977, is headed by an appointed chairman and has 14 members drawn from a variety of disciplines, such as archaeology, -history, architecture, anthropology and geology. Two sub-committees deal with the two major aspects of its work, historical buildings and structures, and archaeology and palaeontology. A third sub-committee was established during the year to handle education and publicity work, an area on which the board is placing increasing emphasis.
Under the guidance of the board, the office continued an active programme of recording, protecting, preserving and restoring the archaeological and historical heritage of the territory and informing the public about heritage preservation.
Several more historic buildings, including Flagstaff House, the former French Mission Building on Battery Path and Law Uk (a Hakka house at Chai Wan), were added to the list of gazetted monuments during the year. Emergency repairs were carried out at the Yeung Hau Temple near Yuen Long and the Hau Kui-shek Ancestral Hall in Fanling. The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club has pledged $2 million for the full restoration of the Kun Ting Study Hall, an important 18th century building.
With the help of students from the two universities, the territory-wide survey of historical villages and structures continued throughout the summer in the north-east frontier areas. A survey of pre-war buildings in the urban areas was also embarked on and this year efforts concentrated in chosen localities within Central and Western, Wan Chai, Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei and Kwun Tong districts to tie in with the urban renewal schemes being studied by the Land Development Corporation.
During the year, a rescue excavation was carried out at Lung Kwu Tan by the office in co-operation with the Institute of Chinese Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The excavation unearthed significant finds dating back to the late Neolithic period. These included artistic objects (such as polished quartz rings), coarse corded pots and a wide range of stone implements like hammers, grinding stones, crystal flakes and splinters. There was also a possible late Neolithic burial. These finds shed light on the life of prehistoric people of the New Territories.