SOCIAL WELFARE
207
year there were 7,494 children under the care and constant supervision of the Child Welfare Section of the Social Welfare Office. Of these, 1,835 were adopted daughters (registration compulsory), 151 were wards of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, 1,470 were voluntarily registered adopt- ed sons, whilst the remainder were children in need of care and protection, such as abandoned children or children run- ning wild and beyond control. With the coming into force of the Adoption Ordinance, 1956, legal adoption is now available in the Colony, in addition to Chinese customary adoption. During 1957 30 Adoption Orders were granted, in connexion with which the Social Welfare Officer, repre- sented by senior officers of the Child Welfare Section, carried out the duties of guardian ad litem.
Most children who have been orphaned, deserted or otherwise deprived of a normal home life are cared for in 36 children's institutions maintained by voluntary organiza- tions, some of which receive annual Government subven- tions. The largest of these organizations, the Christian Children's Fund Incorporated, has recently opened a cottage-type home in the Colony which is certainly the most ambitious of its kind in the whole of the Far East. 'Children's Garden', as it is called, covers 51 acres of land, and is a self-contained model community with its own primary, secondary, vocational, and technical schools, and an agricultural project. There are at present 800 children in residence, but the 95 cottages will, when completed, accom- modate 1,200 children. The Government participated in the cost of construction to the extent of $1,600,000, and will also provide a monthly subsidy for 300 children, transferred in July from the King's Park Orphanage which had been operated on the Government's behalf by the Salvation Army since the immediate post-war period.
In order to improve present standards of child care in Hong Kong, three officers of the Child Welfare Section were sent to the United Kingdom during 1957. One has since