No_1_February_and_March__1941 — Page 10

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Hong Kong Builder

Silver Mine Bay and District as seen from the Pui O Valley Pass.

forward in the history of the Colony wherein social im- provement and alleviation of poverty were to go hand in hand with self-sespect and self-support.

While the editorial mentioned both Lantao and Hebe Haven as being the location of these settlements I was particularly interested in the reference to Lantao Island. I have been a resident of this Colony for ten years and all I know of this island is that from the Castle Peak Road, one can see the island rising in apparent bare and barren slopes from the water's edge. Likewise, in the few trips I have made to Cheung Chau Island. Lantao has been pointed out to me and, from the distance, appeared treeless, waterless, and uninviting. Finally. during a trip to Macao one passes along its shores for quite some distance, and rack my brain though I did, I could not for the life of me remember one single spot

which, as seen from the boat, offered any attractions or possibilities for settlement.

I was, therefore, somewhat curious to learn how and where thousands of families could be accommodated on this island, and how it was proposed that they should earn their living by agricultural pursuits.

The first step towards assuaging this curiosity was to consult a fairly large scale map of the island and on it I discovered that there were large areas formed prin- cipally in the valleys of substantial streams, which con- tained true paddi land, and that there were innumerable streams flowing into the sea from practically every side. It also dawned on me, from this glance of the map, that this island was far bigger than I ever imagined it to be, that it was, in effect, considerably larger than the island of Hong Kong.

Cheung Sha Village on the south shore of Lantao,

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