EDITORIAL
In the course of some remarks made at pp.1-4 of Volume 2 (1962) the then Editor wrote:
we hope to be able to print in future further articles and short notes about the life and customs of the people of Hong Kong by anyone whose work brings him or her into close contact with the people of the Colony. The Editorial Committee would like to point to one particular line of enquiry which might perhaps be followed up with profit by a few enthusiasts resident here. This is the study of traditional Chinese occupations which are still carried out in Hong Kong, but are in danger of dying out elsewhere. From both an historical and a sociological point of view the story-tellers, fortune-tellers, geomancers and their like ought to be studied and their work recorded before these professions vanish for ever. We have the worthwhile task of preserving in print (and on tape) much about the every day life of the Chinese people, but the time is short and we must hurry or it will be too late.
Five years later this is as good a time and place as any to take stock of what has been done and what is being achieved in this direction.
The greatest single effort towards these ends has been made in the two Symposia held by the Branch in the autumns of 1964 and 1966, the first on Social Organisation in the New Territories and the second on Natural and Supernatural in Chinese Social Life: the Role of some Traditional Conceptions in Hong Kong Today. These two week-end events, with follow-up visits to places of special interest, were attended by well over a hundred visitors and guests on each occasion and the lectures given have been embodied in two separate publications issued by the Branch in 1965 and 1967.
Besides these special efforts which have been due to the initiative of the Council we have been fortunate in receiving some items dealing with local subjects from contributors to the Journal. In this issue, in addition to reprinting two articles of historical