ENG-1987 — Page 371

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HISTORY

end-of-year payment and long-service payment has been built up, and the benefits provided have steadily improved. The minimum age for employment in both the industrial and non-industrial sectors is 15 years.

Public Records Office

Established in 1972 as the central repository for official records, the Public Records Office is now one of the largest local sources of information for historical and other studies relating to Hong Kong. The office currently manages 10 000 linear metres of official records, some 4 000 photographs and an extensive collection of maps, local newspapers and official publications.

The Public Records Office provides a records management service to government departments and makes material available for reference and research to both local and overseas scholars, journalists, students, members of the public and staff of other government departments.

Records of permanent value are held at the head office in Central District and at one of the two sub-offices at Wong Chuk Hang Road, Aberdeen. Non-current records, many of which will eventually be destroyed, are stored in the second sub-office.

The increasing awareness of Hong Kong internationally has resulted in a further growth over the past year in the number of reference enquiries received by the Public Records Office, and in the number of individuals conducting research on source materials held. In addition to the publication of a number of books based on these materials, records have been used in the production of television documentaries, films, exhibitions and articles for various newspapers and periodicals.

Owing to extensive loss and destruction of official records during the Japanese occupa- tion, the bulk of the office's holdings dates from the resumption of British administration in 1945. The loss occasioned by the war has, however, been redeemed to some extent by the acquisition of microfilm copies of certain pre-war British government records relating to Hong Kong. The most significant of these comprises despatches exchanged by the Governors of Hong Kong with London from 1842 to the end of 1952.

Public access to library materials, including the newspaper, map and photograph collections, is unrestricted, but formal approval is required for access to official records. Photocopying, microfilming and reading room facilities are available.

Archaeological Background

Archaeological studies in Hong Kong, which began in the 1920s, have uncovered ancient artefacts and other evidence of human activity at numerous sites along the winding shoreline, testifying to events which span more than 6 000 years. The interpretation of these events is still a matter of controversy. Archaeologically, Hong Kong is but a tiny part of the far greater cultural sphere of South China, itself as yet imperfectly known. In such a context, scholarly debate over definitive interpretations may be expected to continue for many years to come.

Recent excavations have revealed two main neolithic cultures lying in stratified sequence. At the lower, oldest, levels there is coarse, cord-marked pottery together with a fine, soft fragile pottery decorated with incised lines, perforations and occasionally painted. Chipped and polished stone tools are also present. Current indications suggest a 4th millennium BC date for this initial phase.

Cord-marked pottery and chipped stone tools continue as long lived traditions into the higher, later, levels in which a new ceramic style decorated with a wide range of impressed