ENG-1959 — Page 106

84

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

Hong Kong and the New Territories by T. R. Tregear, which was published by the University in 1958.

According to this report the Colony's total land area of 391 square miles may be classified from the viewpoint of land utiliza- tion as follows:

Class

Area (sq. miles)

Percentage of whole

Remarks

(i) Built-up (urban areas)

21

5.4

Includes roads and railways.

(ii) Steep country

110

28.1

Rocky, precipitous hillsides incapable of plant establish- ment.

(iii) Woodlands

13

3.3

-Natural and established

woodlands.

(iv) Grass & Scrub lands

171

43.7

Natural grass and scrub.

(v) Eroded lands

18

4.6

Stripped of cover. Granite

country. Capable of re- generation under pine.

(vi) Swamp & Mangrove

lands

7

1.8

Capable of reclamation.

(vii) Arable

51

13.1

Includes orchards and vege- table gardens.

The land area of the Colony is now estimated to be 3984 square miles, but this change does not significantly affect the percentages given for the various classes of land.

In 1937 it was estimated that the total afforested area was 103 square miles. During the Japanese occupation most of the timber was stripped from the hills and catchment areas. This is being replaced and extended by a vigorous afforestation policy. During 1959 an additional area of 1,729 acres was afforested. Of the land in Class (iv), some could be brought into cultivation for a limited range of crops by terracing and the provision of irrigation water and this is being done in several areas as population pressure increases. The balance of this type of land is suitable for the establishment of forest plantations.

All readily cultivable land, including a considerable and grow- ing area of terraced country, is highly cultivated, skilled use being made by traditional practices of natural sources of irrigation. A survey of arable land made in 1959 indicates that, as compared with 1958, there has been an overall increase in land under culti- vation of some 410 acres, but that land under two-crop paddy