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Cost of living of poorer classes:
62. Since October 1927 this office has made monthly inquiries into the retail costs of a number of commodities essential to the life of the poorer classes, including articles of food and clothing and firewood. The average percentage Increase between 1930 and 1931 as deduced from the reports made by the District Watch Force was found to be 2.91%.
FACTORIES.
(Table XXX1).
63. General:—Trade continued dull for the greater part of the year and many factories were working below their full capacity. The knitting and hosiery trades, however, were fairly busy and a large number of factories have sprung up in these trades during the past year. Amongst new factories are also to be noted a large and up-to-date canning plant (a branch of a firm already established at Amoy) and a new silk weaving mill. The silk weaving factory is the first of its kind in the Colony and the local work-people are being instructed by experts from North China. Both artificial and real silk cloth is being made, and as the factory is modern and well equipped, it should prove a valuable addition to the industries of the Colony. A new felt-hat factory has started during the year as well as a number of small factories for the manufacture of electric torches and flash-lamps. The electric torch trade is a thriving one. The articles made are cheap and of good quality and a large export business is done in these goods. The Sino- Japanese company formed last year to manufacture gramophone records has proved unable to with-stand the strain of recent events, and the partnership has been dissolved. The company is to be reformed under purely Chinese control.
64. Child Labour:-The number of children employed in factories shows no tendency to increase and it would appear that Chinese factory owners are now beginning to realise that child labour can be dispensed with. No European firms employ children under the age of fifteen years.
65. Prosecutions:-Ten prosecutions were instituted during the year by this department. Nine were for breaches of the regulations concerning the employment of women at night. (Ordinance 22 of 1922). One was for a breach of the regulations concerning obstruction of fire exits (Ordinance 3 of 1927). The factory owners in all cases were Chinese. Convictions were obtained in each case with fines ranging from $25 to $100.
66. Accidents: --The total number of accidents in factories was seventy-two of which five were fatal, as compared with seventy-five (seven fatal) for the preceding year. The ship- building yards were responsible for a large proportion of the
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accidents and most of these were due to falls from staging or inte ships' holds. Only two accidents concerned women, the compulsory fencing of machinery having reduced the risk of scalping accidents which were formerly so frequent amongst women in knitting factories. A separate table is appended showing the number of accidents occurring in each industry.
67. Legislation:-No further additions have been made to the industrial legislation of the Colony during the year, but the rapid spread of small factories occupying tenement floors in the residential areas has rendered imperative the need for more effective control, and the question of registration of factories and workshops is being considered as a first step towards this object.
CHINESE TEMPLES. (Ordinance 7 of 1928).
(Tables XXXII and XXXIII).
68. Much time and trouble was required after the Ordin- ance was passed to reduce the accounts of the thirty-four Temples concerned and the connected General Charities Fund account to regular order. The accounts of many of the Temples needed clarification: liabilities incurred before the date of the Ordinance sometimes outside the stricter limits set by the Ordinance—bad to be examined and dealt with; the amount to be allowed for standing charges (including customary payments on account of schools, Temple Festivals and God's birthdays) required settlement, and it was essential that at this stage the questions arising should be viewed with as much sympathy as possible for those who had hitherto had the unchecked handling of the Temple Revenues. By July 1st, 1931, it was possible to reduce the accounts to order: entering generally the sum of $44,949 as spent by that date and since 1928 out of Temples Revenues on objects proper to the General Charities Fund.
69. The Temples Committee then reviewed the financial position of each separate Temple and made allocations to the General Charities Fund of sums totalling $90,000 which sum has since been applied under the authority of the General Charities Fund Committee to the enlargement and improvement of the Wantsai Chinese Public Dispensary Maternity Hospital, and of the Yaumai Chinese Public Dispensary: and further to the construction of an entirely new building as a Chinese Public Dispensary in Kowloon City.
70. By the community as a whole the Ordinance, one of a rather unusual nature, has been welcomed. It has resulted in no interference with religion or with customary observances, but fortune telling of the crystal gazing type-which was becom- ing a serious menace is no longer openly practised. The policy of keeping the Temples in good repair out of their own resources
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