J 3
The total revenue received from the Northern District during 1921 was therefore $153,567.55 as against $144,974.82 in 1920. The chief source of the increase was the raising of the duties on native liquors and tobacco.
The cost of the District Office for the year was $33,402.71.
V.-GENERAL.
Crops. The April rains were very scanty and much of the higher land could not receive the first rice-crop until a week before the latest possible date. Subsequently not a little damage was done by over-heavy falls. Nevertheless the first crop was on the whole good. The second crop only averaged 70% owing to drought in the latter half of September.
The sugar-cane crop was an almost complete failure.
Cattle and pigs.-There appear to have been somewhat serious outbreaks of disease both among cattle and pigs; but the districts concerned successfully concealed the fact at the time and no certain diagnoses can be made. It is probable that, as in former years, rinderpest was the cause of the mortality among the cattle.
Crime. The more serious crimes reported included 1 double murder and armed robbery, 1 murder, 2 armed robberies accompanied by kidnapping, 3 armed robberies on land, 4 on water, 2 robberies with violence and 1 highway robbery. The double murder took place at Castle Peak, a district notorious as a home of political intrigue. The real motive appears to have been revenge on a person of mysterious antecedents who was living in the temple where the crime occurred. The other victim owed his fate to his endeavours to procure help. The other murder was committed by a man subsequently found to be insane, the victim being his own daughter. Of the piracies one was committed on the Sha U Chung Ferry Launch, the robbers boarding the vessel at Sha U Chung and carrying out their crime shortly after she left that Chinese port. The other three were all committed on the same day on cargo junks off So Shi Mun. One of the armed robberies with kidnapping took place close by at Leung Shin Wan only a fortnight later. The kidnapped persons were soon released and the whole circumstances of the 4 crimes are suspicious to a degree and thoroughly in keeping with the evil reputation of the neighbourhood. From its position effective patrol is extremely difficult and so far as the shore-population is concerned it is at least open to question whether they do not merit expulsion rather than protection. The children kidnapped in the other case (from Lin Fà Ti) were released from Chinese Territory after much negotiation, a ransom being paid.
Fung Shui.-There were 3 violent disputes over "fung shui" during the year characterised by the usual venom and mendacity. In one case the manager of the "Chai T'ong" at Fan Ling induced a poor farmer of Lung Yeuk Tau to sell the resting place of his grand-parents and the village of Tung Kok Wai, near the grave, having received no share of the purchase money, entered a strong