ENG-1952 — Page 38

REVIEW OF THE YEAR

servants, on conditions which would grant them Crown land at reduced rates provided that they organized themselves into housing societies able to make full economic use of such loans by the erection of suitable blocks of flats.

Among other development and welfare schemes under consideration at the close of the year was the proposal to build a compost factory to provide the New Territories farmers with a cheap fertilizer from a mixture of nightsoil and city garbage. The financial success of the scheme depended on the value of recover- able salvage at the factory and on a large and steady enough demand for compost to ensure that the factory's intake would absorb the whole of the collectable waste matter. Recent surveys showed that the values of the recoverable salvage were substantially less than the preliminary estimates. Moreover it was clearly estab- lished that farmers preferred the quick positive results from matured nightsoil as a surface feeder to the slow 'good heart' value of compost. The scheme may have to be abandoned owing to the heavy initial capital expenditure and the risk of incurring substantial opera- ting losses.

Development and improvement of communications in the more outlying parts of the New Territories were carried a stage further by the completion, during the summer, of two substantial public piers with adjoining reclamation at Cheung Chau Island and near Tai O in Lantau. These two projects cost HK$264,000 (£16,250) and HK$415,000 (£26,000) respectively.

The activities of the Vegetable Market Organization have been extended further by the delivery of thirteen Diesel-engined lorries built in the United Kingdom.

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