1934
$8
Shu Tau" on account of the shady banyan trees which grow there and is as popular with the inhabitants of Yaumati as the Chinese Recreation Ground is with the inhabitants of the Hollywood Road district.
PASSAGE MONEY FUND.
(Table XXVIII).
TRANSLATION.
35. The total number of translations made in the department during 1934 was 821 as compared with 926 in 1933. 430 of these were from Chinese into English and 391 from English into Chinese. In addition a large number of translations made in other Government departments were sent to this office for revision.
LABOUR.
General.
36. As in 1933 labour conditions in the Colony were quiet during the year under review. The level of wages has been mainly unchanged but unemployment has been still more marked though it cannot be said to have become acute as in Western countries. As foreshadowed at the end of 1933 conditions in the building trade were slack as compared with the boom of previous years but thousands of coolies found employment in the construction of the Shing Mun Dam, the new Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building, the new Gaol at Stanley and the new Government Civil Hospital.
Disputes and Strikes.
37. There were no strikes during the year and no disputes of any but minor importance. A few cases of hardship caused by the absconding of contractors or sub-contractors came to notice but the unfortunate coolies who were involved apparently soon found other employment. The Shanghai and local workmen employed in a certain stone-mason's yard came to blows on one occasion but order was soon restored. Towards the end of the year the closing down of a rubber-shoe factory in Shamshuipo was the cause of an ugly incident: a crowd of several hundred female and male employees who were owed arrears of three or four months' wages besieged the manager's wife in the offices of the factory and but for the tact with which the Police handled the situation might have caused her serious bodily harm.
Cost of Living of Poorer Classes.
38. There was again a slight all round reduction in the cost of living, the prices of all the main Chinese food stuffs and commodities and the rents of Chinese flats being lower than in 1933.