109
11. Of the females 28.5% (or 28,088) were engaged in personal service and 24.8% (or 24,468) in agriculture and 7.3% in fishing. Those employed in tran- sport and communication were 12.6% including 4,390 carrying coolies and 7,841 boatwomen. Textile workers were 5.3%.
12. In respect of child labour the following figures were given.
5-10 years
11-13 years
Totals
Grand
Occupation.
Totals.
M.
F.
M.
M.
F.
Fishermen
128
102
738
572
866
674
1,540
Agricultural Occupations
147
172
383
703
530
875
1.405
!
Persons employed in Transport
and Communication
79
96
511
497
590
593
1,183
Persons engaged in Personal
Service
89
316
478
316
567
883
Out of a total in all occupations
of
363
508 2,367 2.515 2,780 3,023
5,753
The largest figures are in respect of fishing and agriculture which are family occupations in which children assist their elders. So transport and communication include children assisting their parents on boats and barges. The statutory minimum age of female domestic servants is now twelve (see paragraph 86).
13. Since 1931 there has been a great development in local industry, and the number of registered factories and workshops has increased from 403 in 1933 to 829 in 1938. While most of the heavy industry such as the docks, cement works, and sugar refinery and the established public utilities, such as Hong Kong Tramways, Electric, Gas and Telephone Companies, are European owned and managed, with, of course, Chinese shareholders in the case of public companies, more recently founded. companies, like the bus companies and most of the factories, are purely Chinese.
14. Owing to the hilly nature of the Colony, land suitable for building and convenient for factories is dear, land charges being three times higher than on the outskirts of London*. Most of the factories are situated in Kowloon, and a large number has been erected in the North Eastern district of Hong Kong. But many factories commence and frequently continue operations in tenements designed for housing purposes only, and such are to be found in many residential areas.
15. As a great entrepôt with a deficiency in primary products and compara- tively few manufacturers Hong Kong has maintained a free trade status, import duties being imposed only on liquor, motor spirit, perfumed spirits, and tobacco.† The economic dependence of the Colony on China was stressed by the Economic Commission which attributed the trade depression of 1935 in part to the erection of a high tariff wall by China while Hong Kong with little raw materials or agriculture was unable by tariffs to defend itself and its standard of living. Hence the Com- mission insisted "Social reforms based on Western models should only be introduced into Hong Kong in reasonable conformity with those enforced in neigh bouring countries" and again "The introduction of legislation for the betterment of working conditions should be cautions and not over ambitious, lest it defeat itself."
*
Appendix II to Report of the Housing Commission 1935.
+ There is a special licensing fee of 15% value in respect of foreign motor cars when first registered.