The territories are ribbed by rugged mountainous ranges rising to over 3,000 feet running mainly from northeast to southwest, the eastern half enclosing numerous landlocked bays and arms of the sea. Included in the area are some two hundred islands, the majority of which are small and barren. These islands are uncultivated for the most part. The largest area of cultivable land is to be found in the northwest of the territories. Only about 50 square miles altogether are under crop,
The population of the New Territories can be broadly split into land-dwellers and sea-dwellers. That broad division should be qualified by the fact that certain of the land-dwellers combine fishing with agriculture and again certain of the purely fishing population live half on the land in derelict boats and huts built on stilts in muddy creeks. The census last year revealed that the total population of the New Territories was 456,404 of which the land-dwellers numbered 409,945 and the sea-dwellers 46,459.
The land-dwellers for the most part live in traditional village communities of one or more clans. Their livelihood depends on the cultivation of rice and vegetables, in the cultivation of pine forests and in the cutting of undergrowth for fuel, in the rearing of livestock and poultry, in the picking of medicinal herbs, in oyster culture, in fishponds, brickworks, limekilns and in food factories. The sea-dwellers engage in fishing both deep sea and offshore, operate water transport by junks, and ply for hire in sampans.
There are a number of immigrant groups who have entered the New Territories as refugees since the Chinese revolution and especially during the period after the last World War. The largest of these communities is that from Shanghai which arrived during the years 1948-51 and brought with it considerable capital and industrial skill. But the unassimilated customs of these immigrants are no part of the Chinese customary law of the New Territories. It is with the indigenous inhabitants, the land-dwellers and the sea-dwellers, that we are presently concerned, and although none of these appear to have been autochthonous nor do some appear to have been of Chinese origin, they have all been settled so long in these territories and now regard themselves as Chinese and speak Chinese dialects that they must be classed as the indigenous Chinese inhabitants. These inhabitants can be sub-divided into the Cantonese, the Hakka, the Tanka and the Hoklo.