SPORT AND RECREATION
287
50 cents for adults). By the end of 1958 133,595 children and 229,888 adults had used the pool, and a number of galas and competitions had also been held there, including the very success- ful visit of the Australian Empire Games' Swimming team who gave three demonstrations under the auspices of the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association and the Hong Kong Chinese Amateur Swimming Association.
The Gardens Division of the Urban Services Department carries out or supervises all gardening development and maintenance in public recreation areas, the grounds of most Government schools, hospitals, offices and quarters, and the grassed areas at the Airport, which cover a total area of approximately 510 acres. Ornamental trees, shrubs, and other plants are grown in five nurseries which can produce several thousand potted plants for decorative purposes on official occasions.
The Division also contains a botanical section responsible for the care of, and additions to, the collection of over 27,000 speci- mens in the Colonial Herbarium. As well as maintaining this collection, started by Richard Brinsley Hinds in 1841, the section keeps in touch with institutions abroad and deals with the phyto- sanitary control of plants leaving the Colony.
The Gardens Division is also in charge of the Li Cheng Uk Tomb, which is believed to belong to the Later Han (A.D. 25 - 200) or the Six Dynasties (200-589) period. This tomb was discovered in 1955 in the course of the levelling of a low mound on a building site in Kowloon. The contents of the tomb are displayed in a small museum adjoining the tomb, which is itself entered through the museum. An illustrated handbook of the tomb, in English and Chinese, was put on sale in January to visitors, 42,617 of whom inspected the museum during 1958.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.