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industries depend to a great extent on a low dollar for success, in the home market and in their export trade. It is not surprising, therefore, that at the end of the year there should be welcome signs of a revival in local industry and of fresh activity in the building trade.
Disputes and Strikes.
41. There were no strikes during the year and only two disputes of more than minor importance, though it was inevitable that individual cases of hardship due to business failure should be more numerous than in 1934. In January, the failure of a knitting factory in Kowloon City resulted in some 150 Shanghai workmen being thrown out of work and rendered completely destitute. Fortunately, it was found possible to recover the accumulated savings of these men and subsequently, with the generous assistance of certain Chinese gentlemen, to arrange for their repatriation to Shanghai.
42. In December, the Resident Engineer, Shing Mun, requested the assistance of the department as mediator in a complicated dispute in which over a hundred and thirty coolies from various districts of China were involved. After some trouble, the matter was finally adjusted and the coolies were paid off.
Cost of Living of Poorer Classes.
43. There was again a slight all-round reduction in the cost of living, the prices of all the main Chinese foodstuffs and commodities being lower than in 1934. Rents of Chinese flats have remained at about the same level as in the previous year, but the general depression has affected the standard of living, so that many who formerly rented flats and cubicles have relinquished them for bed spaces in a common apartment.
44. The natural result has been more overcrowding in the poorer districts and an increase in the number of vacant tenements.
FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS.
(Table XXXI).
45. The depression in local industries seemed to have reached its lowest ebb at the beginning of the year, and during the first nine months there was little, if any, improvement in business.