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courtyard at the back dividing the living room from the kitchen; frequently there is no courtyard. A narrow staircase leads up to the upper floor, which is a repetition of the ground floor; or to a cockloft (mezzanine floor) used for sleeping purposes. Windows are small and the interior usually dark. The ground floor is the living room, and also the work shop, and is often used for sleeping purposes as well. The factory is unknown in the country districts, and all native industries are carried on in the home.
11. The Chinese peasant works long hours for a scanty wage and gets prac- tically no holidays. In general the Chinese are inclined to be fatalists. Although this attitude facilitates the government of the masses, it is unfortunately inimical to progress. Contact with Europeans is bound, in the course of time, to have some effect on the character of those who make Hong Kong their home. The weekend holiday, sport, and a high standard of cleanliness and sanitation are taken for granted amongst the better paid Chinese. Sooner or later the claim for better housing conditions for the masses is sure to be pressed. The longer action is delayed the more costly it will become.
It
12. As, in Europe, the town attracted people from the country, so Hong Kong has attracted the population from the neighbouring provinces of South China. Their habits and customs have had an enormous effect on the develop- ment of the town. The standard tenement has followed the traditional lines of the village house, but with an increased number of floors. Overbuilding, over- crowding, and lack of sanitation have been taken for granted, as the population have always been used to such conditions, and their fatalistic attitude towards life has produced no strong demand for improvement. It must be conceded that, when Hong Kong became a British colony, conditions were little better in Europe. is natural however that the spirit of improvement in Europe should be reflected in a British colony in the East, but, owing to slow communications in the early days, Hong Kong has lagged far behind the mother country. In consequence, in 1931, when the population was returned at nearly 850,000, there were some 270 acres populated at an average density of over 1,000 per acre, with a minimum of 800 per acre and a maximum of over 1,700 per acre in parts. Since the commence- ment of hostilities in China, there has been a rapid increase in the local population, which is now estimated at about 1,250,000. During the last few years the rate of building has been below average. It is therefore safe to assume that the above mentioned densities are now greatly exceeded. The houses themselves average over three stories in height and are built at a density of approximately 30 per acre. Much has been done to improve sanitation but, even so, there are still hundreds of houses with one latrine per house and that for the use of the ground tenants only. To add more latrines, even when structurally possible, would only add to the cost of the building and would result in increased rents and, in view of the poverty of the masses, increased overcrowding If any improvement is to be effected it can only be done by reducing building and population density and rehousing the surplus population elsewhere.
13. The great bulk of Hong Kong industries are still of the "home" variety. The ground floor of nearly every tenement is either a shop or workshop. They factory system has made its appearance, but through lack of planning and direction the factories are competing with houses for building sites and further adding to congestion and confusion.
14. Industry* and housing are so intimately related that it is impossible to consider one without the other. People live by industry and their standard of living is directly governed by the measure of return derived from industry. The type of industry, to a great extent, governs the type of housing and its situation in relation to industry.
15. In any well planned community proper provision should be made for industry and housing. In Hong Kong the basic industries are shipping and com- merce. Arising from these two, numerous other industries have become established, many of them, such as building, shipbuilding and engineering being definitely major
*It will be convenient if we combine all the innumerable methods of earning a living
under the collective term "industry ".