Sessional_Paper_1939 — Page 140

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much to be desired. Arrangements have, however, been made by the Public Works Department to insist on the requirements of the Director of Medical Services being complied with by Government contractors.

134. In the urban areas workers, except in certain trades like glass blowing, camphorwood carving, dress-making, and printing, are not generally provided with housing, but the importers of Shanghai and other non-local labour have as a rule made special housing provision for it, and certain firms, like the Taikoo Dock, house some of their employees. Such housing is generally free to the workers. The Taikoo Dock Company exceptionally charges rent but not on the present day onomic basis. Food is provided free in certain establishments, and the Hong Kong Mines provide a free meal each shift.

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135. Adequate fencing of machinery has been achieved is all registered factories. The question of accident compensation will be dealt with in

a later paragraph.

136. The chief criticism that may be made against existing factories is that most of them were not designed as such but have been converted from tenement floors built for housing purposes. In Hong Kong there are 113 factory type build- ings as

against 409 converted tenement floors, and in Kowloon 180 factory type buildings against 1,041 converted tenement floors. In Kowloon eighty per cent. of the converted tenements are situated in the Shamshuipo, Taikoktsui, and Mong Kok areas.

In sixteen instances the number of floors rented by certain factories exceeds ten, in one case as many as thirty floors having been converted into one factory. It may be possible in time to segregate factories in certain areas as is at present done in respect of offensive trades. The root of the difficulty of tene- ment factories is that tenements are generally available while factories have to be built, and uncertainty as to the future, and deficiency of capital, lead to the choice of the lesser financial risk though greater inconvenience of converting existing property.

187. The usual hours of work in factories are seven to twelve and one to five. Overtime, 6 p.m. till 8 p.m., is normal in knitting, rubber shoe and electric torch factories. In certain factories (chiefly European managed) Sundays are holidays, but the worker in Chinese owned undertakings has usually only about seven days off in the year.

Overtime is generally paid at time and a half or time and a third and serves to eke out the low wages of certain piece workers. The hours are long but not so in comparison with China, and seven a.m. to five p.m., a nine hour day, is becoming standardized. Conditions as to hours are certainly worse in the knitting. factories, which are in direct competition with similar factories in China.

188. There is no restriction on the hours during which adult males may be employed. It may be cbserved that of the forty five prosecutions undertaken in 1988. while only one (already referred to) was for employing children under fourteen years of age, and two for permitting the overcrowding of workers, twenty three were for permitting women and young persons to work during prohibited hours, and nineteen for operating unregistered factories. Twenty four prosecutions were in respect of knitting and weaving factories. Convictions were obtained in all cases.

Wages and Cost of Living.

139. No adequate survey has yet been made of the cost of living of the labour- ing classes in Hong Kong and although index numbers of wholesale prices are published by the statistical office of the Imports and Exports Department no index numbers of retail prices or cost of living are prepared. This deficiency is at present being remedied. Questionnaires regarding family budgets have been issued through various associations and the results are being collated by the Department of Commerce, Hong Kong University, which hopes at an early date to be in a position to produce index figures of cost of living in respect of the working class.

140. The following table shows the course of wholesale price changes in certain foodstuffs since 1924: