SOCIAL WELFARE
189
region of 200,000. Since housing conditions and lack of leisure usually make it impossible for neighbours to care for the children of working mothers, the need for day nurseries is likely to increase as more and more women turn to factory work.
Progress was made in the provision of camping facilities for children and young people. The Scouts completed the first stage of the development of their 40-acre camp site at Tate's Pass while the Hong Kong Conference of Youth Organizations considered sites on Lantau Island for the construction of a new holiday camp for which the United Kingdom Committee for World Refugee Year had provided a donation of $320,000. The two existing holiday camps at Junk Bay and Silver Mine Bay maintained their popu- larity. About 4,500 children from poor families spent a week or ten days at these two seaside camps during the year.
Much greater use was made of the probation service by the Courts, indicating a growing confidence in this constructive method of rehabilitation of offenders. (By the close of the year there were 833 current probation cases compared with 572 at the end of 1960). There were corresponding increases in the number of inquiries and reports to the Courts, the number of offenders com- mitted to institutions run by the Probation Section and the number of after-care cases. The pressure for admission to the Castle Peak Boys' Home and the Remand Home was so great that both institu- tions had frequently to exceed their approved capacities. Recruit- ment of staff has lagged behind the demand, so that probation officers have been obliged to devote less attention to the supervision of each individual offender. This may well have been the main cause for the marked drop, from 80% in 1959 to 71% in 1960 and to 65% in 1961, in the proportion of probationers who have responded well to supervision. This situation underlines once more the importance of developing training facilities so that the output of trained workers can keep pace with growing social needs.
There were two important developments in welfare work with the physically handicapped. Firstly, there was greater willingness on the part of handicapped persons to come forward for registra- tion by the department. The numbers registered rose from 5,431 at the end of 1960 to 6,335 at the end of 1961. Secondly, the emphasis on providing shelter and relief gave way increasingly to