ENG-1967 — Page 306

RECREATION

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contemporary Asian prints; contemporary American prints, and the Law and Sayer collection.

The permanent display of Chinese antique ceramics in the City Hall museum was enlarged during the year by the addition of some bronze, cloisonné and lacquer pieces.

GOVERNMENT COLLECTIONS

The government collections of historical pictures consist of the Ho Tung, Chater and Law and Sayer collections. There are more than 700 items including paintings, prints, engravings and photo- graphs. They form a unique pictorial record of Sino-British contacts in the 18th and early 19th centuries and provide interesting illus- trations of life in Hong Kong, Macau and other cities on the China coast in those days. The limited space in the art gallery does not allow a permanent display of these collections, but exhibitions have been arranged from time to time.

The City Hall art gallery has made a collection of paintings, prints and sculptures by Hong Kong artists. Two exhibitions from this collection were shown this year.

The museum's collection of Chinese antiquities is based on the Henry Yeung Collection, acquired by government in 1949. One of its chief characteristics is the large number of early pottery pieces of South China origin. Some additions have been made to the archaeological collection as a result of field work by members. of the museum staff, the University Archaeological Team and the Hong Kong Archaeological Team.

LIBRARIES

The two Urban Council public libraries at the City Hall and Kowloon serve residents free of charge. The City Hall library has more than 153,000 books in stock of which about two-thirds are in Chinese. The library is divided into four sections: junior, adult lending, reference, newspaper and periodicals, each occupying a floor in the City Hall high block. The Kowloon public library has a total stock of more than 57,000 volumes.

The City Hall library has a microfilm collection of some 1,800 reels, including rare books of the National Library, Peking; selected