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outlet for the production in Hongkong. Scarcity of water and greatly increase/ cost of labour were factors which further conduced to an unfavourable result local Refineries.
In other respects the outlook for industrious enterprise in Hongkong is on the whole promising.
(.)---FISHERIES,
A considerable proportion of the boat-population of Hongkong supports itself by deep-sea fishing, in which pursuit a large number of junks are engaged. In the immediate neighbourhood of the Colony, or within its territorial waters, the fishing industry has not assumed any considerable dimensions.
About $2,000 was paid into the Treasury during the year from fees for fishing stakes and station licences in the New Territory.
(d.)-FORESTRY, BOTANICAL, SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE.
Nearly 6,500 new trees were planted in Hongkong during the year, and more than 31,500 in the New Territory, the majority being pines. It has been found tha camphors will grow sucessfully in the New Territory and nearly 3,000 of these trees were planted in the neighbourhood of the new Taipo Road.
Forestry and Botanical work generally made good progress during the year, though hampered to a considerable extent by the excessive drought in the Spring and the severity of the typhoons during July.
Good experimental work is carried on by a Chinese gentlemen in the New Territory, who has under cultivation sugar cane, mulberries, and various fruit trees, flowers and vegetables. As the cultivation is carried on strictly according to Western methods, and with the assistance of Government, it is hoped that the Chinese of the New Territory will benefit by this excellent object-lesson.
In another district of the New Territory a considerable area is being cul- tivated by a small company under European supervision. So far success has attended the growing of vegetables, and both hemp and Chinese tobacco give promise of repaying cultivation.
(e.)-LAND GRANTS AND GENERAL VALUE OF LAnd.
OC-
Sales of Crown land for the year 1902 amounted in value to $571,361.22, or more than $70,000 in excess of the estimated receipts from this source, and more than $330,000 over the actual receipts for 1901. The only year in which a larger sum has been realized was 1900, when the receipts were $816,222. The value of the land in the New Territory which is contiguous to the harbour or south of the Kowloon range of hills has enormously increased in value since the British cupation commenced. As an example of this, a case may be cited of a small land- owner who before the New Territory was taken over held about 127 acres of land near Devil's Peak, west of the Lyeemon Pass, and paid a tax to the Chinese authorities of $5 per annum. As soon as his title to the land was confirmed by the Hong kong Land Court, he sold it to a local Company for $50,000.
The cadastral survey of the New Territory and the demarcation of the farm lots was a difficult and costly work owing to the rugged and mountainous nature of the ground and the small size of the holdings. This work is now practically finished, and rapid progress is being made with the new rent-roll.
Building land in the urban portion of the Colony is limited in extent and continues to be very costly.
III-LEGISLATION.
Forty-seven Ordinances were passed during 1902, of which twenty-two were amending and twelve private Ordinances.
The dependence of the Colony for its water-supply on the annual rainfall, and the occurrence of a serious water famine in the Spring of the year under review, showed the necessity of introducing new legislation to regulate and control the supply. The result was the Water-works Consolidation Ordinance, which had for its object the economising of water.
Four Ordinances dealt with the New Territory, chiefly in connection with Crown lands resumption, rent recovery, and the registration of titles.
Of the private measures the most important was the Tramway Ordinance (No. 10 of 1902), by which the contruction of an electric tramway within the Colony was authorized and the necessary legal powers conferred upon the Company by which the tramway is to be constructed,
IV.-EDUCATION.
The educational system in the Colony is at present undergoing revision, and it is as yet too early to speak with confidence of the results which may be expected from measures which are, to some extent, only tentative,
Of recent years the demand among the Chinese for instruction in the English language has largely increased, and is now so keen that all the Anglo-Chinese schools of the Colony are full, and many would-be pupils cannot find admittance. There is also a growing number of night-schools and other nou-aided institutions where English is taught. One such school, founded little more than a year ago. has a total enrolment of 300; and application has been made by its Manager for its inclusion, under the Government Code, among sided Schools.
Of Government Schools, Queen's College, with an average attendance of nearly one thousand, is the most important. Three Anglo-Chinese District Schools, with a total enrolment of about 400, were entirely re-constituted and put under European headmasters from the end of the year. Of aided Anglo-Chinese Schools, the Roman Catholic Cathedral School has an average attendance of over one hundred. In all these schools a large proportion of the staff consists of European masters.
During the year a school for children (both sexes) of European British parentage was established at Kowloon: it has already a total enrolment of over sixty.
A Committee was appointed early in the year to consider the whole question of education in the Colony; and it published a report in which were enunciate l several important principles. Of these perhaps the most universally accepted is the dictum that while educating Chinese in English and Western Knowledge, it is also desirable to ensure a certain standard of proficiency in the Chinese written language.
The Inspector of Schools, who was in England during the summer, made a study of the methods employed by the Board of Education, and on his return drew up a new Code for aided Schools. This draft has since received the full approval of the Managers of Schools.
V.-PUBLIC WORKS.
The principal public works undertaken or completed within the year were the new Law Courts, the road to Taipo, the Western Market, the new Harbour Office, an extension of the Tytam Reservoir, the Kowloon Water-works, and the Governor's new Peak Residence. The Law Courts are to be built on the Praya Reclamation. The greater part of the year was occupied in forming the foundations, which were nearly completed. The road to Taipo, the administrative centre of the New Territory, was practically finished. Its width is 14 feet and its length 18 miles. The founda- tions of the new Western Market were nearly completed up to ground level, and also those of the new Harbour Office. The new Water-works at Tytam and Kow- loon have been undertaken in consequence of the inadequacy of the existing water supply to meet the requirements of the city of Victoria during the dry season. The excavation of the foundations for the new Tytam Reservoir, over a length of about 280 feet, was practically completed, and a portion was filled in with cement The new Kowloon Water-works selenie is in the hands of a firm of local architects and engineers. Beyond the laying of mains, the defining of drainage boundaries and a certain amount of excavation, there has not yet been time to wake any decided progress with the work.
concrete.
The Governor's new Peak Residence was completed in July and occupied shortly afterwards. The house is large and substantial and stands near the highest point on the island.
The total amount spent on Public Works Extraordinary during the year was $1,157,104; and on works annually recurrent, $506,793. Of the former sum, $508,000 was expended in the purchase of a site on the Praya Reclamation for the new Post Office.
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