EMPLOYMENT
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Apprenticeship. Government employs apprentices in the work- shops of the Public Works Department, the Stores Department. the Printing Department and the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Those selected are required to sign indentures, and are called upon to attend technical classes. Apprenticeship schemes are also organized by the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Co of Hong Kong Ltd, the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Co Ltd, the public utilities, and by several other firms. These trainees are encouraged to attend technical classes for which tuition fees are often paid by the employer. Some of the larger spinning and weaving mills operate apprenticeship schemes for mechanics or junior engineers, and arrange classes on their own premises in both technical and general subjects.
The Technical Education and Vocational Standing Committee met twice during the year.
NEW TERRITORIES
Farming and fishing are two of the principal occupations in the New Territories. Rice is the traditional crop, and used to be cultivated to the virtual exclusion of all other farm produce. In recent years, however, there has been a marked trend towards the production of vegetables and other crops, and pigs and poultry are now reared on a large scale. Local seafaring employment is described in Chapter 7.
The pattern of country life in the New Territories has been increasingly altered by the diversification of agriculture, by im- migration and by the growth of industry and commerce. Large numbers of villagers have gone overseas to seek employment, some as seamen, and many as cooks or waiters in Britain and the United States. In 1961 some 1,866 villagers went to Britain from the New Territories. In recent years there have been additional opportunities of employment in North Borneo and elsewhere in south-east Asia for semi-skilled and agricultural workers from the Colony. Thus remittances from overseas have come to form an increasingly im- portant factor in the economy of the New Territories. It is known, for example, that postal and money orders to the value of $9,145,779 were cashed at New Territories Post Offices in 1961, compared with only $1,216,595 three years ago. No figures are available for bank or other forms of remittances but these are
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