time, a smaller market of 18 shops existed in Hang Hau. (Hang Hau became part of the built-up area of Tseung Kwan O New Town, and not part of Sai Kung Town.) There were no proper educational centres in Sai Kung Peninsula at that time, as traditional study halls were located in the smaller villages. However, the Catholic Church of Hong Kong had established a primary school there at the end of the 19th century, which taught a Western curriculum in the market town. The colonial British government also established a police station and a dispensary near the market. During World War I, ships were required to be inspected by the Royal Navy when entering or leaving Victoria Harbour. The Port Shelter and Sai Kung market town were located outside the harbour and thus benefited from the policy by becoming places for resupply. A temple inside the Sai Kung market town also became the local civic centre for the settlement of disputes. The shop owners, who were not from the surrounding villages, even acted as representatives for Sai Kung in Heung Yee Kuk in the 1920s. Heung Yee Kuk represented the interests of the rural villages of the New Territories and was recognized by the colonial government as a consulting institution. However, in the 1930s, the local merchants formed their own chamber of commence and gradually took over political influence in the market town. Nowadays, however, the Heung Yee Kuk seat for the Sai Kung Central constituency is elected by the local residents of the town through universal suffrage. The rural villages surrounding the town still elect their own representatives to Heung Yee Kuk. According to another author, Sai Kung market town expanded economically in the 1950s. At the time, the world was enforcing an embargo policy on the newly established People's Republic of China, and the market town became a place for smuggling goods to the Republic. Sai Kung town underwent significant expansion during the 1970s when the High Island Reservoir and its associated water management schemes required some villagers and fishermen to be rehoused in Sai Kung. This provided a core of government-funded new development, both housing and commercial, in the town centre. This was followed by the Tui Min Hoi (literally 'over the harbour') development under the government's market town programme. Before the relocation of the airport of Hong Kong from Kai Tak to Chek Lap Kok,