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day, five short papers were read on fish, fauna and flora of the sea-shore; insects; land vertebrates, and birds, and the talks were illustrated by an exhibition of both stuffed and live specimens. The field trips, held on the Sunday, were to Tai Tam Bay which supports fauna communities, some of them unique to Hong Kong Island, on its extensive sand and mud flats; and to the Mai Po Marshes, a wetland habitat dominated by deep ponds producing ducks, mullet and carp, and having a marginal zone of dwarf mangrove. This provides a unique eco-system of considerable scientific interest. Professor Lofts is currently engaged in editing the materials presented by his team for one of our symposia publications. The materials from our previous symposium, held the preceding year, should be ready for publication shortly.
Our first local visit of the year was to the Sikh and Hindu temples in Happy Valley. This took place in April. Of the 10,000 Indians in Hong Kong, some 2,000 are Sikhs and the majority of the remainder, Hindus. The Hong Kong Khalsa Diwan, “Sacred Assembly”, as both the Sikh temple and its congregation are called, was founded in 1935 and the Hindu temple some time later. Led by Mr. Ian Watson of the Department of Philosophy, University of Hong Kong, a group of members first attended a Sikh service (Sikhism is a revisionist movement within Hinduism, founded at the close of the seventeenth century) and then visited the Hindu temple and its library.
Our second excursion was to Cape D'Aguilar, named after Major General G. C. D'Aguilar, first general officer commanding the Hong Kong Garrison in the 1840s. A group of members visited Hok Tsui village, founded in the eighteenth century, and providing the older name for the Cape D'Aguilar area. They looked at old houses and the village's granite watch-tower, together with its temple to the god Pak T'ai, probably of the nineteenth century.
In January, members visited the Lo Pan temple—Lo Pan is the god of carpenters and building constructors. The temple is situated in Kennedy Town, in an interesting old corner of Western District, still largely in its pre-war condition, and first built about 1884. The fourth and last local visit was to Tai Miu, Joss House Bay, one of the most historical sites of Hong Kong and well-known in Chinese historical and geographical works. The Tai Miu, or "Great Temple" is dedicated to T'in Hau, “Empress of Heaven”, a very popular