ENG-1948 — Page 179

modern methods which are suited to local conditions and whose value has been demonstrated to them by practical tests, find in fact that there are few directions in which their traditional methods can be improved upon.

The New Territories include 75 adjacent islands many of which are uninhabited. Productive land is even scarcer than on the mainland and the estimated island population of 60,000 includes many fisherfolk living aboard their boats. Lantau, the largest island, is well watered, but the gradients are such that even the patient Chinese farmer has been able to secure only a few precarious footholds and there is little cultivation. Well- wooded ravines and scrub-covered spurs, where wild boar and barking deer are plentiful, slope steeply upwards to a bold and lonely skyline. The island of Cheung Chau, although quite small in area, maintains a thriving community and is an important fishing centre. Another still smaller island, Ping Chau, is the site of a match factory. The rest of the islands are much smaller, one (Ngai Ying Chau) measuring only 8 acres having been inhabited until recently by a single family.

The climate is sub-tropical and is governed to a large extent by the monsoons, the winter being normally cool and dry and the summer hot and humid. The north-east monsoon sets in during October and persists until April. The early winter is the most pleasant time of the year, the weather being generally sunny and the atmosphere dry. Later in the winter cloud is more fre- quent, though rainfall remains slight; in March and April long spells of dull overcast weather may occur. Warm southerly winds may temporarily displace the cool north-east monsoon during this period and under these conditions fog and low cloud are common. From May until August, the prevailing wind is the "south-west" monsoon, a warm damp southerly wind blowing from equatorial regions. Winds are more variable in summer than in winter, for the monsoon is frequently interrupted. The weather is persistently hot and humid and is often cloudy and showery with frequent thunderstorms. The summer is the rainy season, three quarters of the annual rainfall falling between the months of May and September. The mean annual rainfall is 84.26 inches (2140.2 mm.)

From June to October Hong Kong is most liable to be affected by typhoons, although they are sometimes experienced before and after this period. A typhoon whose centre passes over or near the Colony may be accompanied by winds of hurricane force, resulting in widespread damage on sea and land. Although the loss of life on such occasions among the boat people is now minimized by an elaborate system of warnings, there are always

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