20
each section of the industry are banded together into guilds. These are at present of the nature of friendly societies, but it is possible that they may develop into more orthodox trades unions in the future.
The following are notes on the equipment and general facilities of the three main yards:
TAIKOO DOCKYARD & ENGINEERING Co., Ltd.
A Graving Dock 787 feet long with a breadth at entrance of 95 feet and a depth of water at ordinary spring tides of 34 feet 10 inches.
Three patent slipways capable of taking vessels up to 4,000 tons displacement.
Five building berths for ships up to 500 feet in length.
Deep water quayage 3,200 feet long, with one 100-ton crane, and 25-ton and 10-ton electric travelling cranes.
836 gross tons of shipping were completed during 1938, and 22,320 gross tons were under construction at the end of the year.
HONG KONG & WHAMPOA Dock Co., LTD.
Largest Graving Dock 700 feet long, with a breadth of 88 feet to 94 feet and a depth of water at ordinary spring tides of 29 feet 6 inches. Five other graving docks.
Two slipways capable of taking vessels up to 2,000 tons displacement.
Building berths for ships up to 700-800 feet.
Two wharves of 430 feet and 600 feet respectively.
6,000 tons of steel were used on structural repairs to ships during 1938. 11,069 gross tons of shipping were completed during 1938, and 3,193 gross tons were under construction at the end of the year.
W. S. BAILEY & Co., LTD.
Sea frontage for shipbuilding berths of 550 feet on which twenty-one vessels can be laid down.
Facilities for the construction of hull and machinery for vessels up to 200 feet in length.
Repair work is carried out on three electrically operated slipways, the largest accommodating vessels of 300 feet in length and of 3,000 tons displacement. The total repair work undertaken during 1938 was carried out on vessels totalling 22,000 tons.
Ships were constructed to a total of 521 gross tons during the year and ships totalling 500 gross tons were under construction at the end of the year.
Mining.
Owing to the absence of a detailed geological report, the mining potentialities of the Colony are to a large extent unknown. Small scale prospecting and mining operations in the past would appear to indicate that there are no minerals of economic value on the island of Hong Kong but that in the New Territories and neighbouring islands there are deposits of the following minerals which may prove of economic value if prospected and mined by up to date methods backed with adequate capital: Argentiferous galena, Wolframate, Molybdenite, Magnetite,