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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
planning for additional exchanges to meet this demand is con- tinuous.
Despite increasing costs, telephone rentals remain unaltered and are possibly the lowest in the world. Rentals are charged on a 'flat rate' basis at $300 per annum for a business line and $225 per annum for a residential line, for which the subscriber may make as many local calls as he wishes.
METEOROLOGICAL SERVICES
The Royal Observatory is the sole source of weather information in Hong Kong. The Central Forecast Office at the Observatory provides forecasts for the general public, shipping and the Armed Forces, and supplies analyzed weather charts by facsimile to the Aviation Forecast Office at the airport. In addition to its mete- orological duties, the Observatory operates a seismological station and a time service.
One of the Royal Observatory's most important functions is to give warning of tropical storms. Whenever a tropical depression, tropical storm or typhoon is located within the region bounded by the latitudes 10° and 30° North, and the longitudes 105° and 125° East, six-hourly and often three-hourly bulletins are issued. These include information on the storm's intensity and the position and movement of its centre. Frequent and reliable reports by ships and storm reconnaissances by aircraft help to locate storms accurately. When the Colony itself is threatened, the local storm warning system is brought into use, and warnings are widely distributed by means of visual signals, telephone, radio and Rediffusion.
Details of the year's weather are given in Chapter 22.
METEOROLOGICAL RESEARCH
Hong Kong extended its International Geophysical Year activi- ties by taking part in the 'International Geophysical Co-operation 1959'. A programme of increased upper air measurements, both radio-sonde and radar wind ascents, was carried out during World Meteorological Intervals and on Regular World Days.
Research was undertaken on a variety of problems, mainly in applied meteorology. The most important of these was a study of
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