LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS
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training centres, with a joint average success rate of 74.76 per cent are a source of pride to the department. The great majority of boys are found a job before leaving and the high success rate proves the value of the training system.
The staff of the Prisons Department includes 22 gazetted officers, 839 other ranks, and 192 executive officers, interpreter-translators, clerks, school-masters, social welfare officers, trade instructors, mechanics, storekeepers, telephone operators, messengers and labourers.
FIRE SERVICES
Hazards to life and property by fire are created by a variety of factors, most of which are present in Hong Kong. Through over- population many residential, commercial and industrial buildings of a highly combustible nature have densities of as much as 300 per cent in excess of their designed capacities. An example of the extent of overcrowding in Hong Kong is seen in the figure of 623 people rescued by the Hong Kong Fire Services in one year com- pared with 447 rescued by the combined resources of 135 fire brigades in the same period in the United Kingdom.
Water supply difficulties and the existence of many thousands of squatters who live in flimsy, inflammable structures on hillsides and rooftops are big problems connected with fire defence in Hong Kong. The extraordinary rate of new building development, in- cluding additional places of public entertainment, schools, restau- rants, eating houses, dance halls, clubs, etc has made necessary the establishment of a Fire Prevention Bureau to specialize in planning and enforcing standards of public safety.
Organized fire protection services have existed in Hong Kong for nearly 100 years. These were re-organized immediately after the second world war, and in 1960 Government embarked on a 10-year development plan to provide a minimum of a six-minute attend- ance by fire service units to all fires in built-up areas in the Colony. Some 26 fire stations are already in existence, and the development plan provides for an increase at the rate of between four to six stations a year until 1970. The service comprises 184 professional officers and 1,621 professional other ranks, augmented by 62 officers and 925 auxiliaries.