ENG-1949 — Page 26

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largely used for ferry work in the eastern waters, being stoutly built, with hulls high out of the water along their whole length, and a single mast. The Hoklo are a small but virile minority, sailing and rowing the fastest boats. The men often speak Cantonese and Hakka in addition to their own language. They occur mostly in the eastern New Territories, in Tide Cove, Tolo Harbour, and Starling Inlet. There is also a winter incursion of Hoklo farmer-fishermen from Hoi Luk Fung, without their families, who fish along the west coast of the mainland, returning to Hoi Luk Fung in spring for the first sowing. The biggest fishing port is Cheung Chau, but the only place where the boat people live ashore is at Tai O, where hundreds of hovels on piles cover the shores of the creeks.

Industrial expansion into the New Territories, chiefly at Tsun Wan and further along the south-west coast of the mainland, is introducing a new element of

of Shanghai labourers. The reopening of the iron mine at Ma On Shan has quickly attracted the picturesque conglomeration of men from many parts of China which seems inseparable from mining here.