ENG-1954 — Page 37

POPULATION

the quarrying of stone are, or were, primarily the sphere of the Hakka. Farmers of both sections, when they live on or near the sea, combine fishing with agriculture, though unlike the boat people their homes remain in their villages even though they may spend nights away on the water. Their women seldom go fishing.

As a result of post-war conditions in the interior, Chinese from many provinces of China can now be found in the more accessible parts of the New Territories as vegetable, pig and poultry farmers. They have also contributed their share to the recent development of built-up areas.

In the New Territories, sailing and rowing boats, and the people who live in them, fall into three classes : the genuine Cantonese boat people (the Tanka), the genuine Hoklo boat people and the small passenger and fishing craft used mainly by Hakka farmers. The first two classes live mainly by fishing and use dis- tinctive types of boat. The third class, used largely for ferry work on the eastern (Hakka) side of the peninsula, are 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, and they live mostly in the eastern New Territories, in Tide Cove, Tolo Harbour, and Starling Inlet.

The biggest fishing port is Cheung Chau, but the only place where the boat people live ashore is at Tai O, where hundreds of huts on piles cover the shores of the creeks.

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