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Chinese resident there. There is also a large area of land devoted to the growing of sugar cane, indigo, hemp, peanuts, potatoes of different varieties, yam, taro, beans, sesamum, pumpkins, and vegetables of all kinds.

Experiments are now being made to ascertain whether the cotton plant will flourish in the newly-leased area, and there seems to be no reason, as far as soil and climate are concerned, why these experiments should not succeed. If they are successful, the cotton mill which is now being erected in Hong Kong would find this a convenient source of supply for at any rate a portion of its raw material.

FRUITS.

The fruits are pumeloes, pineapples, oranges, lungngans, pears, lichis, persimmons, pomegranates, wongp'is, and mangoes.

VEGETATION.

The mountain ranges and lower hills are covered with vegetation, and cultivation is found high up on the hill sides. In some places a crop of rice was growing at an elevation of 1,300 feet, and on the northern slope of the Taimò Shán range tea and pine apple were observed growing at an elevation of 1,500 feet. The range of Taimò Shán, stretching to the west towards Castle Peak Bay, is covered with good grass, which appeared to be such as would suit cattle, horses, and sheep, many thousands of which could find pasturage on the slopes of these hills. At present cattle are used entirely for agricultural purposes. The animals seen were small and well shaped, and generally black or red in colour. Their good condition showed the excellence of the pasturage. In the poorer and rocky soil the hills are covered with bracken and ferns, and in the sheltered ravines with brushwood and scrub jungle. There are no extensive forests, but some of the lower hills are clothed with pine trees, and round many of the villages are found thick clumps of well-grown trees and groves of bamboo.

CULTIVATED LAND.

The valleys* between the hills and the land between the bases of the hills and the sea are all under cultivation. It is impossible in the absence of any reliable statistics to form an accurate estimate of the extent of land under cultivation. The land registers of the district, which ought to be a reliable guide, are worse than useless, as they contain not more than half the land under cultivation. When the Chief Secretary of the Land and Revenue Department of the District was pressed on this point, he stated that the land under cultivation was about double the amount shown in the registers. These give the land under cultivation in the San On District, on which taxes are paid, in round figures, as 420,000 mau,† or, say, 60,000 acres, the double of which would make 840,000 mau, or 120,000 acres. Taking the area to be leased as three-fifths of the whole of the district of San On, the total extent of land under cultivation in that area would amount to 504,000 mau, or 72,000 acres. The total area of the new territory is 376 square miles, or 240,640 acres. Deducting the land under cultivation, viz., 72,000 acres, from the total area, 240,640 acres, leaves a balance of 168,640 acres available as Crown land.

This calculation presumes that all the land under cultivation is owned by private individuals, but from inquiries made, there is reason to believe that a considerable portion of cultivated land is held without any proper title, and that most of, if not all, the land reclaimed from the sea has never been officially reported to the Government. Both classes of land, though fairly large in extent, have hitherto, it is understood, evaded the payment of taxės.

The land question will be a difficult one to deal with, and as it will affect practi- cally the entire population, the members of which are particularly sensitive on the subject of their holdings, it should be taken in hand at once, and settled as quickly as possible.

To do this effectively, and in a manner that will be satisfactory to both the Govern- ment and the owners of property, it will be necessary to hold an inquiry into each title. Such inquiry will involve an accurate survey of each holding, and, as the quantity of land held by individuals is, as a rule, very small, it will require much time and labour to complete the necessary surveys.

*For Views of Valleys, see Album I., Nos. 10, 17, 20; Album II., Nos. 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 23.

† 6.61 mau 1 English acre. For convenience of calculation, 7 mau have been taken as the equivalent of 1 acre.

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