ENG-1971 — Page 280

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RECREATION

administration of the City Museum and Art Gallery in 1969. Relics from the tomb are on public display, providing a glimpse of the life in southern China 2,000 years ago.

The total attendance at the Museum and Art Gallery at the City Hall for 1971 was 175,450, representing an average of 579 people on each day that it was open. The corresponding figures for 1970 were 272,440 and 870. At the Lei Cheng Uk Museum, where an admission charge of 30 cents for adults and 10 cents for children is made, the total attendance was 17,140 averaging 56 per opening day. In 1970 the figures were 15,225 and 50.

Apart from the formal exhibitions organised by the Museum and Art Gallery, 147 exhibitions were held in the City Hall's general exhibition hall and exhibition gallery which are available for hire. These were arranged and mounted by various commercial and non- commercial groups and ranged from exhibitions of paintings to displays of commercial appliances. Photography as an art form, in which Hong Kong residents have gained international recognition, was again amongst the most interesting of these exhibitions.

LIBRARIES

The Urban Council public libraries offer free lending, reference and study room facilities to all residents of Hong Kong. There is a comprehensive range of 385,443 volumes in both English and Chinese, 756 current newspapers and periodicals from all over-the world, 2,729 reels of microfilm and 966 seats in the reading rooms. Two hundred and eighty-two of these seats are provided in the separate students' study room in Kowloon Park, opened late in 1970 as a pilot scheme.

During the year, a new library at Yau Ma Tei was opened. This is now the main library for Kowloon peninsula, and like its island counterpart, the City Hall library, consists of adult lending, junior and reference sections, a newspaper and periodical section and a students' reading room. The branch libraries at Cambridge Court in Kowloon and at the Wah Fu Estate on the Island concentrate on lending facilities for adult and junior readers, but each has a news- paper and periodical section and a reading room for students.

The libraries continue to be well used and since 1962 when the first library (at the City Hall) was opened, 294,504 people have reg- istered as borrowers. An average of 5,008 books are borrowed and 4,443 books are consulted each day in the lending and reference libraries. Various extension activities in the form of book exhibitions, children's story-hours, a Christmas card competition and organised