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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
ninety five day pupils. The foundation stone of the Victoria Park School for the Deaf, which will cater eventually for 120 deaf children, was laid on 11th December 1959.
Construction of a second home for the aged to be run by the Little Sisters of the Poor has begun at Aberdeen. This, together with the planned extension of the Sin Tin Toa Home for the Aged, a Taoist organization, will enable another 650 old people to receive residential care, in addition to the 1,000 inmates of the six existing homes for the aged. The West China Evangelistic Band Home for the Aged, catering initially for 10 old women, was opened in October 1959.
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. Hong Kong still lacks a specialist institution devoted to this problem, but arrangements were made at the end of the year for an expert examination of the facilities needed for care of mental defectives, now the only handicapped group for whom no specific provision exists.
The Mental Health Association organized its first Mental Health week in April 1959 as a prelude to World Mental Health Year 1960. Broadcast talks and film shows were arranged as well as visits to the Child Guidance Clinic at the University of Hong Kong and the Mental Hospital.
Relief and 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 consequent upon the reduction in the Armed Services' estab- lishments, especially the final closure of the Dockyard towards the end of the year, has not improved the position, although the great majority of those affected have been able, with Government assist- ance, to find other work. Many thousands of families are obliged to depend upon the earnings of irregular and unskilled labour for their livelihood; poorly paid and undernourished, they have no material or physical reserves and remain above the level of destitu- tion only by dint of constant effort. There is here a vast field for relief work.
During the year there was a considerable increase in the amount of outdoor relief provided through the Department. An average of