ENG-1958 — Page 73

OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR ORGANIZATION

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Younger men, who would normally be reaching the age to follow in their fathers' footsteps and go to sea or to settle abroad, had to stay in their villages. At the same time there was a reflux of former emigrants from the West Indies, and even from urban Hong Kong. Quite suddenly, the land was insufficient to maintain its own population. The long-neglected higher terraces and coastal fields had by this time been lost-the former by erosion, the latter by invasion of the sea-and, in general, to repair the damage was beyond village resources.

Gradual progress is now being made, with Government assist- ance and encouragement, in repairing these several decades of neglect, and agriculture, which had formerly been sinking into a subsidiary to other more exciting and profitable jobs, is gradually regaining its proper importance.

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 number of local village girls have been employed. The large iron mine situated in the hills beneath the peak of Ma On Shan employs almost entirely immigrant labour from North China. Other smaller mines employ local labour.

The industries more truly typical of the New Territories are the operation of salt pans, the preparation of salt-fish, fish-paste, beancurd, soya sauce and preserved fruits, the burning of coral and sea-shells for lime, brick manufacture, shipbuilding and repairing, stone quarrying and leather manufacture. On Peng Chau, in the Southern District, there is a match factory for which, as a sideline occupation, villagers on neighbouring islands make hand-prepared match-boxes. In all the fishing towns a substantial section of the land population earns a livelihood by providing restaurants and shops, chiefly used by the floating population.