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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
yards, most of which was delivered by barges towed to the Tsuen Wan Maturation Station from where it is delivered to the New Territories for use as fertilizer after processing. Eight new tanker-type conservancy vehicles were obtained during the year and these, in conjunction with a converted tanker barge, underwent extensive and satisfactory trials.
NEW TERRITORIES
Scavenging. In October 1956 the District Commissioner, New Territories, took over from the Director of Medical and Health Services the responsibility for scavenging services in the New Territories. It is intended to raise the standard of these services in the country towns to a level more nearly comparable with that in the urban areas, and eventually to build up an organization covering the whole of the New Territories. A staff of 204, under a Senior Health Inspector, is currently engaged on this work.
In the towns of the New Territories hand carts and litter-bins are now in use. The refuse thus collected is re- moved by vehicles to refuse dumps. There is, in addition, a house-to-house collection service in certain areas. Five vehicles were in service at the end of the year, and the amount of refuse collected was about 4,200 cubic yards a month. Plans are in hand to construct compost tanks in place of the dumps, and pilot tanks installed during the year had already proved successful and popular with the farmers.
In the villages not served by roads a different system is used because of the difficulty of communications, and refuse is usually burned or buried on the spot. On all these New Territories scavenging duties about 170 men were employed at the end of the year. Many remote villages are necessarily excluded from these arrangements, and efforts are being made to educate and encourage the people who live there to make satisfactory arrangements on their own.