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modation, the Administration was further hampered by a severe shortage of school furniture, equipment and books, of which no adequate provision could be expected until supplies arrived from the United Kingdom.
46. In spite of these difficulties, there was a steady increase in the number of children attending school throughout the period of the Military Administration, and by the end of February 274 schools were in operation, providing instruction for 42,000 pupils. Hundreds of pupils, however, were still being turned away each week, and, in order to extend existing facilities to the utmost, a system was adopted of housing two schools in a single building, one session in the morning and the other in the afternoon. By this means instruction was provided for a further thousand children.
47. The Education Department was fortunate in the steady return to the Colony of teaching staff both for Government and Grant-aided schools. This rendered unnecessary the proposed emergency arrangements for the training of teachers, and at the end of the Military period, there were sufficient teachers to operate the two-session schools and also to give instruction to 1,000 students in evening classes. Every effort was made to provide greater facilities for vernacular education, particularly for the fishing population and for those in the rural areas.
48. By March, only lack of accommodation and equipment prevented further substantial increase in the school population. It was estimated that there were 120,000 children of school-age in the Colony. Of these only one-third were receiving instruction, though it was hoped that by September, 1946, this figure would be doubled. The problem was a pressing one-if only as a method of combatting and preventing juvenile crime and delinquency which had shown an alarming increase since the re-occupation.
49. Few facilities for higher education were available during the Military period. Damage and looting of equipment made the resumption of the Government Trade and Technical Schools impossible until the buildings could be repaired and re- equipped. The University also suffered serious damage and serious loss. A target date for its re-opening was set for October,
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1946, but it was likely that this would be possible only on a severely restricted scale,
50.
It is not unnatural that one of the Administration's most striking innovations should have been the regulation and control of the one local industry which was capable of making an appreciable contribution to the food supplies of the whole popula- tion. This official entry into the sphere of private enterprise was justified both by the results obtained and by the backward state of the fishing industry before the war. During the war the Japanese had exercised, through a Government-sponsored com- pany, a monopoly over the wholesaling of fish throughout the Colony. The fact that a control over the marketing of fish was the main pivot also of the British scheme, caused considerable initial opposition on the part of the fishermen, which took both time and effort to dispel. By the end of the Military period, however, doubts had been largely resolved and the experiment was confirmed as a benefit both to the fishermen themselves and to the Colony as a whole.
51. The Fish Marketing Scheme was first put into operation in the early days of the Administration, when, by proclamation, the wholesaling of locally caught fish was prohibited except at the Kennedy Town market. The collection and transportation of the fish to the wholesale market was placed in the hands of four syndi- cates, at Shaukiwan, Aberdeen, Cheung Chau and Tai-O, which were in turn administered by the Fisheries Office, through a Central Union which would eventually be responsible for the whole scheme. The syndicates were also in charge of the distribution to the fishermen, at the lowest prices possible, of ice, rice, kerosene and salt. A charge of 6% of the selling price was levied on sea fish, and 3% on salt fish, and the proceeds were allocated by the Fisheries Office to the running of the Central Union, the syndicates and the market, while the balance was used for the direct benefit of the fishermen themselves.
52. To provide initial impetus to the scheme, and to assist the general rehabilitation of the industry, the Administration granted a loan of $100,000. So successful was the scheme that it was estimated that, at the rate of 25% of the net profit per month, this loan could be repaid by the end of May. The amount of fish
Fisheries.
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