C 9
PASSAGE MONEY FUND.
(Table XXVII)..
Translations.
35. The total number of translations made in the department during 1930 was 1,501 as compared with 1,606 in 1929, 658 of these were from Chinese into English and 843 from English into Chinese. In addition a large number of translations made in other Government departments were sent to this office for revision.
LABOUR.
I. General:
36. The year 1930 saw a certain increase in the number of labour disputes, details of which are given below. It remains true that most of the guilds are financially embarrassed, the hard times through which the workers of the Colony are passing having caused subscriptions to fall into arrears.
A great proportion of the workers in Hong Kong are paid on a piece-work basis, and such categories as regular and casual workers are hardly applicable to conditions in many trades here, where men are engaged and rewarded by curiously complicated systems.
Wages have, so far as can be seen, tended downward, trade having been bad for the whole of the period under review. This fact, together with the increasing price of commodities consequent on the low exchange value of the dollar, was the cause of the more serious labour disputes; though the price of the cheaper grades of rice, the staple of the lowest paid section of the population, has not increased in proportion to other commodities. There has been no appreciable movement in house rents.
That there has been much unemployment, especially among unskilled workers, is certain. It has probably been greater than in the immediately preceding years, but figures are impossible to obtain, and it is even doubtful how far the fact is due to the condition of the Colony, and how far to the distracted state of the interior.
II. Disputes and Strikes:
37. In February this office arbitrated in a dispute between the rice coolies and their employers, due to the decision of the latter to reduce wages by one-third. The attitude of the Tung Pak Guild to which the coolies belong was reasonable, and the dispute was eventually settled by a compromise.
C 9
PASSAGE MONEY FUND.
(Table XXVII)..
Translations.
35. The total number of translations made in the depart- ment during 1930 was 1,501 as compared with 1,606 in 1929, 658 of these were from
from Chinese into English and 843 from English into Chinese. In addition a large number of translations made in other Government departments were sent to this office
for revision.
LABOUR.
I. General:
36. The year 1930 saw a certain increase in the number of labour disputes, details of which are given below. It remains true that most of the guilds are financially embarrassed, the hard times through which the workers of the Colony are passing having caused subscriptions to fall into arrears,
A great proportion of the workers in Hong Kong are paid on a piece-work basis, and such categories as regular and casual workers are hardly applicable to conditions in many trades here. where men are engaged and rewarded by curiously com- plicated systems.
Wages have, so far as can be seen. tended downward, trade having been bad for the whole of the period under review. This fact, together with the increasing price of commodities consequent on the low exchange value of the dollar, was the cause of the more serious labour disputes; though the price of the cheaper grades of rice, the staple of the lowest paid section of the population, has not increased in proportion to other commodities. There has been no appreciable movement in house rents.
That there has been much unemployment, especially among unskilled workers, is certain. It has probably been greater than in the immediately preceding years, but figures are impossible to obtain, and it is even doubtful how far the fact is due to the condition of the Colony, and how far to the dis- tracted state of the interior.
II. Disputes and Strikes:
37. In February this office arbitrated in a dispute between the rice coolies and their employers, due to the decision of the tter to reduce wages by one-third. The attitude of the Tung Pak Guild to which the coolies belong was reasonable, and the
was eventually settled by a compromise.
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