showed no signs of diminishing popularity as it entered its ninth series. So popular were the finals of each series that on one occasion a queue of applicants for tickets stretched from Mercury House, down Club Street and along Chater Road to the Naval Dockyard. Mr. L. G. Morgan, Acting Director of Education, presented the prizes at the final programme in the general knowledge quiz in which the Adult Education and Recreation Centres competed in April 1958.
47. In 'Movie Magazine' Hong Kong stars appeared regularly before the microphone, together with directors and studio workers; the pro- gramme also covered all notable events in the film world.
RURAL BROADCASTING
48. Farmers in the New Territories were taking a greater interest in the weekly Farmers Magazine and were making more use of the advice it offered through the letterbox feature. In 1957, an average of one letter per week was received, in 1958 this rose to five letters per week and the number is increasing. Whilst this interest is gratifying, it presents the producer with a problem, since not more than two letters a week can be answered and the backlog is growing. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Department provides the expert technical knowl- edge for the programme, which presents information and advice on current farming topics, specific advice on individual farming problems, exchanges news of New Territories activities generally and gives current market prices for agricultural produce.
49. A second programme for the New Territories began in July, when a weekly variety show took to the road. Each week since then, a team of technicians and artists have visited villages which rarely have the opportunity of seeing live entertainment, and record a half hour programme. The high cost of this programme, particularly the cost of transport, makes its continued production open to doubt, although public reaction has been very good. A gala performance was given at the 1959 Agricultural Show when the programme was produced before an audience of visitors to the show and the regular artists were augmented by Cantonese opera and film stars.
50. Not only do these two programmes have positive benefits for New Territories people; they also, judging by comments in listeners' letters, contribute in no small measure to a greater understanding by city people of country folk.
51. An extension of rural programmes in the form of a weekly fiction serial based on the life of a country family was under considera-
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