74
BARBARA E. WARD
for stealing, was a lay-about on the streets of Sai Kung; the son in the other family had made good, found a husband for his sister, and a wife for himself whom he had installed with his mother in one of the newly built houses ashore in Kau Sai).
Numbers of boats and persons on board
Because of the constant movement in and out of the anchorage, the number of boats actually present in Kau Sai fluctuated not only from day to day but also during the day. This makes it difficult to determine exactly which, in pragmatic terms, were "really" Kau Sai boats. The diagram on p. 42 above should not, therefore, be read as a definitive statement of the size of the boat population, but simply as a description of the pattern of the anchorage. The total of 43 boats depicted therein (of which 24 are purse-seiners, 14 liners of one kind or another, and 3 cargo-carrying boats) is both less than the "ideal" number of those claiming to belong to “our bay” in 1953 and 1970 when counts of this kind were made, and more than the average daily attendance recorded in the register I kept for 18 months in 1952-3. I have already hinted at the sociological aspects of this problem, which will be considered in detail in the chapters on village government and politics,3a for the analysis of which it is crucial. At the level of the practical day-to-day organisation of living on board the junks, however, it was of little or no significance. For our present purposes, it is enough to state that over the whole period under review, the maximum number of boats claiming Kau Sai as their base was a little above 60, the number normally present by day being about half that.
One point, however, does stand out: in all the counts made, the purse-seiners were in the majority. Thus, not only were they more regularly at home than the long-liners and others, they were also more numerous. Being more or less daily in the bay, most of them had also made a habit of storing certain things ashore. Bundles of firewood, whether bought or cut and bound by themselves, lined much of the waterfront; spare nets, baskets, tubs, drying mats, and so on used to be kept in small fish huts by those who were lucky enough to own them. Purse-seiners were also the first to build the new houses in Kau Sai and move parts
74
BARBARA E. WARD
for stealing, was a lay-about on the streets of Sai Kung; the son in the other family had made good, found a husband for his sister, and a wife for himself whom he had installed with his mother in one of the newly built houses ashore in Kau Sai).
Numbers of boats and persons on board
Because of the constant movement in and out of the anchor- age the number of boats actually present in Kau Sai fluctuated not only from day to day but also during the day. This makes it difficult to determine exactly which in pragmatic terms were "really" Kau Sai boats. The diagram on p. 42 above should not, therefore, be read as a definitive statement of the size of the boat population, but simply as a description of the pattern of the anchorage. The total of 43 boats depicted therein (of which 24 are purse-seiners, 14 liners of one kind or another and 3 cargo- carrying boats) is both less than the "ideal" number of those claiming to belong to “our bay” in 1953 and 1970 when counts of this kind were made and more than the average daily attendance recorded in the register I kept for 18 months in 1952- 3. I have already hinted at the sociological aspects of this problem which will be considered in detail in the chapters on village government and politics,3a for the analysis of which it is crucial. At the level of the practical day-to-day organisation of living on board the junks, however, it was of little or no significance. For our present purposes it is enough to state that over the whole period under review the maximum number of boats claiming Kau Sai as their base was a little above 60, the number normally present by day being about half that.
One point, however, does stand out: in all the counts made the purse-seiners were in the majority. Thus not only were they more regularly at home than the long-liners and others, they were also more numerous. Being more or less daily in the bay most of them had also made a habit of storing certain things ashore. Bundles of firewood, whether bought or cut and bound by themselves, lined much of the water front, spare nets, baskets, tubs, drying mats and so on used to be kept in small fish huts by those who were lucky enough to own them. Purse-seiners were also the first to build the new houses in Kau Sai and move parts
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