ENG-1962 — Page 148

PRIMARY PRODUCTION

113

After a poor yield in 1961, this year's production was adversely affected by typhoon damage to the beds.

Pearl Culture. Five commercial pearling companies are licensed and operating in the Colony on sites surveyed and licensed by the Co-operative Development and Fisheries Department. Four of the sites are in the Tolo Harbour and Channel area and there is one in Port Shelter. It is still too early to judge the success of their activity, but shortage of suitable sites threatens to restrict wider expansion. To assist research into the requirements of this infant industry a small pearl culture research station has been constructed at Kat O in Mirs Bay.

MARKETING

Fish Marketing Organization. The end of the Pacific War found the few fishermen remaining in the Colony in very poor circum- stances. Many were literally in rags and their vessels and fishing gear had fallen into a state of disrepair. Interest-free loans and grants were made to rehabilitate the fishing fleet and a fish market- ing scheme was introduced and controls imposed on the landing and wholesale marketing of marine fish, with the long-term object of developing the industry on a sound economic footing. From this beginning developed the Fish Marketing Organization, a non- Government trading organization controlled by a civil servant, now the Commissioner for Co-operative Development and Fisheries.

The organization is a non-profit-making concern which finds its revenue and pays its expenses from a six per cent commission on all the sales in its wholesale markets. Until this year it operated under emergency legislation, but the Marketing (Marine Fish) Ordinance, which was enacted in 1956, has now been brought into force together with the necessary subsidiary legislation, the drafting of which was completed during the year. The ordinance provides for the establishment of a Fish Marketing Advisory Board to assist the organization, and appointments to this board were made during the year.

The organization runs five wholesale fish markets, at Aberdeen and Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island, Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon, and Tai Po and Sha Tau Kok in the New Territories. Six fish-collecting posts have been set up in other fishing centres and the organization provides sea and land transport from these to the wholesale markets. The posts also serve as liaison offices