ENG-1951 — Page 20

likely that a great part of Hong Kong's unspent allocation under the Act will be devoted to housing. The only remaining project still under consideration which would effect the rural population is the proposal to set up a compost factory in the New Territories to produce cheap fertilizer from nightsoil and city garbage. A preliminary investigation into this proposal has been made but the scheme was still in an immature stage at the end of the year. One of the chief problems connected with it is that the factory would have to be able to handle the whole of the waste matter at present dumped by the Sanitary Department into the sea off Kau I Chau, since it will not be an economical proposition for the Sanitary Department to have to organize two methods of disposal involving extra towing craft and increased personnel. This means that if a compost factory is set up to handle the amount of waste available it will be the largest plant of its kind in the world. It is thus all the more difficult for the Government to obtain the required technical advice on it, and it was on this particular aspect of the scheme that the Government was engaged when the year ended.

Of the schemes mentioned in last year's Report the equipment for Radio Hong Kong's new broadcasting studios and offices in Electra House, the Far Eastern headquarters of Messrs. Cable and Wireless Ltd., was installed and the new studios were brought into use in April. The Colonial Development and Welfare grant of £20,825 was not quite sufficient to cover the cost of all the equipment, another £6,322 being met from public funds.

The scheme to produce a new type of fishing vessel based on Chinese methods of construction but suitable for mechanical propulsion proceeded slowly. In view of the considerable amount of mechan- ization already undertaken by the more prosperous fishermen and fishing companies it was decided to concentrate on producing a design for a smaller type of craft, the purse seiner, most of the operators of which will find it financially difficult to mechanize their craft and will thus stand to benefit most by the Colonial Development and Welfare scheme, the second part of which is expected to consist of providing loans to fishermen to assist them to build vessels on the lines of the new type of purse seiner now under consideration. Extensive advice was sought by the Fisheries Department from members of the fishing community about the specifications required for the experimental vessel and at the end of the year the Government was in a position to forward these specifications with a request for further technical advice to the Fisheries Adviser to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Considerable progress was made in the long-term scheme for the improvement of pier facilities in the New Territories. This scheme is

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