190
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
for the Blind which has some fifty residents is also planning to build new premises and to expand its work, which has been stimulated by the return of one of the Sisters after training in the United Kingdom. The Music Training Centre for the Blind, which opened in September 1957, now has sixteen pupils.
A sub-committee on the Welfare of the Deaf was appointed by the Social Welfare Advisory Committee at the end of 1957 to study existing services for the medical care, education and welfare of the deaf. Its recommendations are expected to be made shortly. A party for the deaf organized by the Department was attended by over 500 deaf people and helped to establish contacts for a sample survey of 478 cases carried out on behalf of the Sub- Committee. The Hong Kong School for the Deaf, which uses the oral method of instruction, had over a hundred boarders at the end of 1958; the Chinese Overseas School for the Deaf and Dumb, together with its branch school in Kowloon, caters for ninety five day pupils.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club donated $1,000,000 in 1958 to the Little Sisters of the Poor for the erection at Aberdeen of a second home for the aged and $100,000 to the Committee of the Sin Tin Toa, a Taoist organization, to extend their home. This will enable another 650 old people to receive residential care, in addition to the 1,000 inmates of the five existing Homes for the aged.
There are now over a hundred mentally deficient children in institutions such as North Point Camp, the Po Leung Kuk, and the three hospitals of the Tung Wah Group. An ad hoc Committee has been arranging transfers between these institutions in the interests of easier management and training. Hong Kong still lacks a proper institution devoted to the care of mental defectives, despite efforts made during the year towards this end.
The Mental Health Association sent 4 delegates and an observer to the First Asian Seminar on Family Life and Mental Health held in the Philippines from 7th to 31st December.
Public Assistance. Increases in the population of the Colony by immigration as well as by natural causes have led to yet heavier pressure on available employment. The retrenchment of staff con- sequent upon the reduction in Armed Services' establishments has not improved the position, although so far the great majority