134
J. T. COOPER
As the machine-plots were field-checked and completed they were flown back to the United Kingdom to be fair-drawn. This was not the end of the production process, however; the fair-drawn sheets were flown to the Colony where all names and ornament were added by the drawing office staff of Survey Branch. After this the sheets were again air-freighted to England for final printing.
Despite the complicated arrangements production has been steady. The last of the 1/600 scale sheets of the urban areas were received in early 1968 and the final sheets of the New Territories at 1/1200 scale are now being plotted and should be checked, drawn and printed by the end of 1969*.
These very large-scale plans can, of course, be used to produce smaller or medium-scale plans by photographic reduction combined with re-drawing at the reduced scale, when much of the smaller detail is omitted or "generalised". The 1/600 scale plans of the urban areas are being used to produce a series at 1/2400 (200 ft. to 1 inch), which will be used by many Government departments, the Police etc. Some 60 sheets will cover the whole of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon. These will be similar to the well-known "25 inch" (1/2500 scale) plans of Great Britain produced by the Ordinance Survey. In Hong Kong, however, the 200 ft. series will be available with contours at 20 ft. vertical interval if required.
In the New Territories the need for medium-scale plans for town-planning purposes was urgent. It was evident that the 1/1200 scale series would not be available before 1966-1967 for many of the developing areas, and to produce smaller scale plans from these would entail further delay. The Colony had been photographed again in December 1964 from 12,500 ft. and air photographs at 1/25,000 scale were available which were intended to be used to revise the old military 1/25,000 scale topographic maps, (of which more later).
It was then arranged that from the high-level photography Messrs. Hunting's should produce plans at 1/4800 scale (400 ft. to 1 inch), with contours at 50 ft. vertical interval, for all areas of the New Territories where development was planned. These
* See plates 11 and 12 for specimen extracts.