ENG-1960 — Page 137

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PRIMARY PRODUCTION

Co-operative Societies, from two sources: the J. E. Joseph Trust Fund and the Vegetable Marketing Organization Loan Fund. Since the establishment of the J. E. Joseph Trust Fund in 1954, which the Commissioner administers with the general guidance of the Rural Development Committee, farmers have received from it 7,038 loans totalling $8,282,000 and also 475 loans of $1,816,000 from the Vegetable Marketing Organization's Fund.

The Government has declared the policy that the Organization should one day be run by the farmers themselves as a co-operative enterprise. Considerable progress has been made in this direction.

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES

A Registrar of Co-operative Societies was appointed in 1950, and the combined Co-operative and Marketing Department, now part of the Co-operative Development and Fisheries Department, came into being later in the same year. Since then, the Co- operative movement has made rapid progress in Hong Kong and is being accepted by a growing number of people, particularly peasant farmers and fishermen, as a sound and democratic way of improving their lot. While the main weight of effort was directed at-first towards the physical formation of societies and towards ensuring that they were sound in organization and economy, existing societies and the general public are now more aware of what such unions afford, and the Department now places more emphasis on the moral and educative side of the movement.

An interesting development during the past five years has been the growth in the number of Co-operative Building Societies; these societies are at present formed exclusively of local pensionable officers of the Civil Service and have been established with funds loaned by the Government. Another development of great im- portance is the increasing appreciation by rural communities of the improvements they may make in their way of life by co- operation and the formation of Better Living societies.

47 new co-operative societies were registered in 1960, bringing the total on register at the end of December to 304. Among the new registrations were a Vegetable Marketing Society, two Pig Raising Societies, one Agricultural Credit Society, three Fisher- men's Thrift and Loan Societies, three Federations of Fishermen's