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Agriculture.
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caught steadily increased throughout the Military period, center- ing round a daily average of 100 piculs of fresh fish and 700 piculs of salt fish. New syndicates, and extensions of the scheme's benefits to every aspect of the industry, were planned, and there is little doubt that when supplies of ship-building materials and fishing gear were fully available many new developments would be possible. The ultimate aim of the scheme was to replace the Fish- eries Office by the Central Union, when the former would revert to the status of an experimental station, through which modern methods could be taught to the fishermen, research work con- ducted, and advice given in the running of the co-operative scheme by the fishermen themselves.
53. The early progress of the Fish Marketing Scheme prompted the application of similar principles to the production and marketing of vegetables, with the object of eliminating the rapacious charges of the middleman, securing a fair price for grower and consumer, and stimulating the production of vege- tables to a stage at which the Colony would become independent of outside supplies. A lengthy survey of the conditions of vegetable production and marketing was carried out, and in February the plan for a Co-operative Marketing Scheme was approved. Concurrently a survey was made of all unculti- vated land, and, as a result, the soil from various areas was analysed and immediate re-cultivation of the former Kam Tin airfield was started. It was clear that the greatest need of New Territories agriculture lay in the lack of an efficient and economi- cal fertilizer. Pre-war plans for the collection, maturing and distribution of urban night-soil were revived, and, after prelimin- ary experiments, sites were prepared for the necessary maturing tanks. A livestock survey revealed that the New Territories stock of pigs had been reduced to one-fifth, and of cattle to four- fifths, of the pre-war figure. Plans were made for increasing the quantity, and improving the quality, of live-stock, by the establish- ment of a Government-controlled pig-breeding station which could later be extended to include cattle.
54. The effects of the occupation on the afforestation of both the island and the mainland will be appreciable when all other signs of its ravages have been eliminated. It is clear that unrestricted cutting proceeded throughout the three-and-a-half
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year period, with an incalculable loss to the Colony, both from scientific and from scenic considerations.
55. The first step in the rehabilitation of the Colony's flora was clearly the prevention of further damage, but, with a population starved of firewood and well accustomed to resort to every illicit device in order to obtain it, such restrictive measures as were possible had to be tempered by common humanity. Special areas were, however, assigned for cutting, and a system of forest guards devised as protection for dangerously denuded areas. Meanwhile seeds for re-afforestation were bought wherever they could be obtained, overgrown nurseries were cleared and re- stocked, and, with the approach of spring, ambitious new schemes of planting were undertaken, which included the removal of available young trees to urgent locations such as reservoir areas or slopes where erosion was imminent.
Salaries.
56. The flourishing trade union movements fostered by Labour and the Labour Officer before the war were obliterated by the Japanese. Pending the introduction of new trade union legislation to replace the scanty pre-war enactments, all trades unions and employers' guilds were encouraged to record particulars of their organizations, and help and advice were made available for the foundation or re-forming of unions and guilds. At some sacrifice to other branches of the Administration, the strongest available team was assigned to labour duties of this and allied kinds. Incipient strikes appeared spasmodically throughout the Military period, but all these were satisfactorily dealt with by direct negotiations between employers and employees with the advice and assistance of the Labour Officer. None of the threatened strikes became serious, and all were due predominantly to economic causes and were not immediately inspired by political agitation.
57. The danger of widespread strikes was, nevertheless, ever present to the Administration. It seemed inevitable that, once labour had recovered its nerve and absorbed the existing atmos- phere and temper of the remainder of the Far East, demands would be made which could not, in existing circumstances, be easily met. The fact that such strikes as threatened appeared to be characterized mainly by economic motives, provided no guar-
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