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III. INDUSTRIES.
(a.)—Fishing.
64. Of all sections of the Chinese, the most interesting and the least known to foreigners is the fishing population: and of all they have been least affected by foreign influence. Their life and their methods and their materials are now much the same as they were several hundred years ago; and there is no better locality for the study of their life and ways than the archipelago of the Canton River Delta.
65. The bulk of the fishing is carried on by large junks, which trawl in pairs, with a long net some 250 feet in length. It is very wide in the middle and tapers to two narrow ends where it is attached to the two junks. Such junks will go to sea for any time up to 10 days, and to a distance of 100 miles or more from land; they carry a large supply of salt, in which each catch of fish is thoroughly salted and stowed away. The fish is dried on board or on shore and sold to the shops in the nearest port, which act as agencies for the big salt fish firms in Hongkong: the average price of salt fish is $11.00 per picul, equivalent to two pence a tb. The season for this fishing extends from about October to May: during the other months the winds are unreliable and typhoons are feared. The chief home of large junks in still Macao, where there is a convenient and extensive anchorage, good fishing ground, and cheaper living than near Hongkong: their chief resorts in our territory are Aberdeen, Shaukiwan and Cheung Chau. The large bulk of the fish trade is in salt-fish, which is exported from Hongkong in all directions: but in the immediate neighbourhood of Hongkong much of the fish can be delivered fresh. This is caught during the night and sent in by launches to reach the market before dawn. The price fluctuates considerably, according as weather, wind and tide have allowed of a good or a poor night's fishing. Sometimes there may be a big catch in the Western waters and a scanty haul on the East, and the Shaukiwan fish dealers may then be offering $20.00 per picul for fish which is at the same time fetching only $15 at Aberdeen: indeed junk masters arriving at Aberdeen with a big catch, and finding low prices there, have been known to hire a launch to tow them round to Shaukiwan, and where they may be in time still to put their fish on the local market at a good figure.
66. Indeed life on a junk is altogether one of gambling and speculation, and therefore dear to the heart of the Chinese. A junk may return from a cruise with fish to the value of $2,000 or $3,000, or almost empty; and in either case all on board share in the fortunes of the junk. Living such a life, junkmen are naturally open-handed and free with their money, good customers for the shops, which will give them credit for many years in bad times, in the hope of a good season coming at last. They are honest and dependable, and give little trouble to the Police or the Magistrate; their domestic life is harmonious and free from the bickerings which are such a feature of life on shore. On the other hand they are simple folk, and their education and their standards fall somewhat short of those of the land population. They are very superstitious and the numerous shrines and temples along the coast bear witness to their piety: on this account also they readily fall victims to the wiles of the fortune-tellers and averters of evil spirits.
67. Below the large juuks in size coine a variety of small craft of schooner or cutter rig, which fish in the more protected waters of the estuary. As a rule they work singly with smaller trawl nets, but sometimes go out in pairs, as in the Wong Fa season in November and December. Lastly come the innumerable small craft which swarm in every sheltered cove and emerge to fish either with small nets or with lines: the most noticeable of these are the Hoklo boats of whom many have settled in our waters, and many more come down, chiefly from Ping Hoi, some 40 miles away up the coast, to fish for shrimps during the summer months in the waters round Lantao. About April or May hundreds of these craft, some 20 feet long, with high bows and sterns and very shallow draught, take advan- tage of a fair East wind and descend upon these coasts. Three man each boat, of whom when fishing, one rows and the other two work the net. The Hoklos are for the greater part connected with shops and fish dealers in Hongkong, and surrounding ports, but many also come down as free-lances. When fishing is bad the latter may become a menace to the more peaceful craft, whom they suprise and rob at sea on dark nights, rowing away in their light craft to some sheltered spot to divide their booty. They occupy matsheds at various con- venient spots near good sandy beaches, where they can draw up their boats and dry or mend their nets.