ENG-1990 — Page 446

HISTORY

Expenditure on education facilities and improvements for Hong Kong's young and vibrant population has always been one of the major considerations in budget preparations and there are now free and compulsory primary and junior secondary school places for every student up to the age of 15.

In the field of social welfare, major advances have been made by both the government and voluntary agencies in the past decade, with expenditure increasing from $878 million in 1980-81 to $4,946 million during 1990–91.

The medical and health services are also undergoing vigorous development programmes which will provide three more major acute government hospitals and some 15 additional clinics and polyclinics over the next decade.

A comprehensive system of labour legislation has been built up to provide for employ- ees' benefits and protection, work injury compensation, industrial safety and occupational health. In 1990, a statutory Employees' Compensation Insurance Levies Management Board was set up to administer an insurance levy to ensure compensation for those injured or killed at work.

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.

Some writers suggest that Hong Kong's most ancient inhabitants were related to the early horticultural Bacsonian peoples of South-east Asia, themselves successors of late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers known as the Hoabinhian. They urge an underlying con- tinuity of cultural development running throughout the prehistoric periods and perhaps into the historic. More traditional views see in the archaeological remains evidence of powerful influences entering the region from northern cultures, such as the neolithic Longshan and the early northern bronze age cultures which gave rise to China's first historic dynasties, the Xia and the Shang. There are, on the other hand, a growing number of scholars who believe that the prehistoric cultures within the South China region had evolved locally, independent of any major influences from outside the area.

However, a consensus is growing that the earliest periods, from the close of the 4th millennium BC, must be seen within the framework of a changing environment which experienced sea levels rising from depths as low as 100 metres below the present inexorably submerging vast tracts of coastal plain and establishing a basically modern shoreline and ecology to which human groups present in the area had to adapt or perish.

The stone tools, pottery and other artefacts upon which we must rely for an insight into the lives of Hong Kong's ancient inhabitants are for the most part preserved in coastal deposits. This pattern of coastal settlement points to a strong maritime orientation and an economy geared to the exploitation of marine resources. However, it would be unwise to over-emphasise this point, since the discovery of archaeological remains is influenced by the many factors governing their survival. One such factor, the erosion of the hilly terrain, has been severe, and there is evidence, though scanty, of some inland settlement.

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