HISTORY
394
The programme, given impetus by the Long Term Housing Strategy to provide affordable housing for all those in need by the turn of the century, is being implemented by the Housing Authority.
Expenditure on education facilities and improvements for Hong Kong's young and vibrant population has always been one of the major considerations in budget preparations and there are now free and compulsory primary and junior secondary school places for every student up to the age of 15. In 1992, the government was able to provide subsidised Secondary 4 places for about 82 per cent of the 15-year-olds in a continuing programme.
In the field of social welfare, major advances have been made by both the government and non-government organisations in the past decade, with expenditure increasing from $1,585 million in 1982–3 to $6,384 million during 1992–3.
The medical and health services are also undergoing vigorous development programmes which will provide two more major acute public hospitals and some 15 additional clinics and polyclinics over the next decade.
A comprehensive system of labour legislation has been built up to provide for employees' benefits and protection, work injury compensation, industry safety and occupational health. In 1992, the Employees Retraining Ordinance was enacted and the Employees Retraining Board was established to administer the retraining scheme for local employees. There was a growing need to retrain local workers displaced from declining industries as a result of economic restructuring in recent years.
Archaeological Background
Archaeological studies in Hong Kong, which began in the 1920s, have uncovered ancient artefacts and other evidence of human activity at numerous sites along the winding shoreline, testifying to events which span more than 6 000 years. The interpretation of these events is still a matter of academic discussion. Archaeologically, Hong Kong is but a tiny part of the far greater cultural sphere of South China, itself as yet imperfectly known.
Despite suggestions that local prehistoric cultures had developed out of incursions from North China or from South-East Asia, there is a growing number of scholars who believe that the prehistoric cultures within the South China region evolved locally, independent of any major outside influences. There is little dispute on the other hand that these earliest periods, from the close of the 4th millennium BC, must be seen within the framework of a changing environment which experienced sea levels rising from depths as low as 100 metres below the present inexorably submerging vast tracts of coastal plain and establishing a basically modern shoreline and ecology to which human groups present in the area had to adapt or perish.
The stone tools, pottery and other artefacts upon which we rely for an insight into the lives of Hong Kong's ancient inhabitants are for the most part preserved in coastal deposits. This pattern of coastal settlement points to a strong maritime orientation and an economy geared to the exploitation of marine resources. However, it would be unwise to over-emphasise this point, since the discovery of archaeological remains is influenced by many factors governing their survival. To quote one example: the erosion of the hilly terrain has been severe, and evidence of inland settlement, though scanty, is not totally absent.
Recent excavations have revealed two main neolithic cultures lying in stratified sequence. At the lower, older level there is coarse, cord-marked pottery together with a fine, soft