ENG-1956 — Page 78

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

Pig-breeding is an important source of livelihood in most villages, and, particularly in hilly areas, there are good herds of the local humped cattle, for beef and draft, but not for milk. Cut grass also has commercial value, principally for breaming (applying fire to ships' hulls to cleanse them from slime, weeds, etc., a process which, in the case of fishing junks, is undertaken about ten times a year), and in villages which are within easy range of fishing-towns grass is col- lected, chiefly by women, and transported to town on foot or in small family-owned boats. Almost all coastal villages own small boats or sampans, used for transport and inshore fishing, the latter being exclusively a man's job.

Certain occupations are traditionally followed by different sections of the rural community. The Deep Bay oyster fish- ing, for example, is a Cantonese occupation, while beancurd manufacture and stone quarrying are Hakka occupations.

The Tanka, and those Hoklo who have not settled per- manently ashore (see Population Chapter), live entirely by fishing. The largest boats, suitable for deep-sea fishing, are Tanka, the boats being generally owned by women. Hakka boats are used principally for transport on the eastern side of the New Territories; they are stoutly built, single-masted, with hulls high out of the water along their whole length. Hoklo boats lie lower in the water, high in the stern; whether sailed or rowed they conform to the same basic design, and are the fastest of the inshore boats used.

The Tsuen Wan area has been affected more than any other part of the New Territories by the growth of industries in the Colony during the past ten years; Tsuen Wan having developed during this time from a group of old-fashioned villages into a rapidly enlarging industrial and market town. New Territories people have not, however, been much attracted by factory work (or sought after by employers), and most of the labour engaged is from Hong Kong and Kowloon, together with an element of Shanghai refugee labour. A welcome exception is at Sham Tseng, where a large