Edward Hewitt Nichols

rdf:langString Edward Hewitt Nichols

rdf:langString Edward Hewitt Nichols

rdf:langString Edward Hewitt Nichols

rdf:langString Northumberland, England, UK

rdf:langString Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK

rdf:langString yes

rdf:langString Edward Hewitt Nichols

rdf:langString June 2021

rdf:langString 李國士

rdf:langString zh-Hant-hk

rdf:langString British agriculture and aquaculture official

rdf:langString Member of the Legislative Council

rdf:langString He went to University before he was born. Either the date is wrong or this is talking about someone else.

rdf:langString No matter what happens, we cannot reverse in time and return to the old traditional rural living ways like how we cannot put a beautiful insect or flower inside an amber to maintain a country lifestyle. If we are ready to pay the inevitable cost, then we can only determine the development of "how to limit urbanisation". At the same time, we must know that our next generation will rate our legacy in quality and quantity. I am sorry but I have to say that we used to only care about short-term economic benefits while ignoring that we will be criticised in the future.

rdf:langString December 1965 – January 1980

rdf:langString Edward Hewitt Nichols CBE JP, (Chinese: 李國士, 29 December 1925 – 29 January 2016) was a British colonial agriculture and aquaculture official. Having served in Sierra Leone, he then worked in Hong Kong, where, from December 1965 to January 1980, he was the director of the territory's Agriculture and Fisheries Department. From October 1976 to January 1980, he was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. He was a major proponent of country parks in Hong Kong. He was also a regulator, and promoter, of cooperatives and credit unions. Nichols graduated from Newcastle University, Queens' College, and the University of the West Indies, majoring in agriculture. In 1947, he joined the Colonial Office. He was sent to Sierra Leone and became director of agriculture there. Later, he was promoted to senior director in 1954 and head director in 1957. He mainly researched rice plantation. He participated in the production of Zoo Quest. In 1959, Nichols went to Hong Kong to become the assistant director of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department. In December 1965, he replaced Jack Cater as the director. During his term, the agriculture and aquaculture industry was negatively affected by urbanisation and to address this, he actively promoted agriculture mechanisation and provided incentives to the industry to sustain production. To satisfy high demand of fish, he encouraged and supported Hong Kong fishermen to expand their operations and promoted replacing wind-powered ships with mechanised ones to increase efficiency. The gross domestic product of the industry increased from 200 million HKD to 1.1 billion HKD across his term. In the early 1970s, Nichols called for awareness of importance of nature conservation, warning Hong Kong people not to "only care about short-term economic benefits while ignoring that we will be criticised in the future" (Chinese: 只顧目前和短期的經濟利益，而忽略將來受到歷史的批判). Murray MacLehose, upon being appointed as the governor of Hong Kong, actively investigated designating country parks and in 1976 the Hong Kong government passed the and Nichols became the head director of the and the head chairperson of the . Within four years, the Agriculture and Fisheries Department designated 21 country parks covering 40% of the land in Hong Kong. Nichols was also responsible for building infrastructure for country parks and setting foundations for the early operation of country parks. In 1980, the United Kingdom awarded him the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his work in promoting the agriculture and aquaculture industry and developing country parks.

rdf:langString 李國士