HEALTH
117
The supervision of hawkers, markets and slaughterhouses has an important bearing on public health and the Urban Services Depart- ment employs a large staff in these fields. There are 63 public retail markets where the housewife can buy fresh meat, fish, poultry and vegetables, but many of these markets are old and outmoded, making it difficult to maintain hygienic standards. The Urban Council's programme for reconstructing many of the older markets and for providing new ones in developing areas such as Kwun Tong and North Point has been accelerated, and much fresh thinking has gone into the planning of these projects. The Urban Services Department operates two public slaughterhouses which deal with about two million animals a year. They will be replaced during 1968 by two modern abattoirs now under construction.
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Street hawking provides a livelihood for perhaps 100,000 people in the built-up areas of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Ter- ritories. The great majority of these hawkers sell vegetables and other foodstuffs in streets around markets and shops selling meat, fish and poultry. Although they satisfy a public demand, hawkers obstruct streets which are already congested, hamper public cleans- ing work and create a health problem. The policy of the Urban Council is to concentrate hawkers in off-street bazaars, where possible, or in minor streets, where they can carry on their business with the minimum of inconvenience to other sections of the com- munity. The enforcement of the regulations governing hawkers is carried out by the Hawker Control Force, established in 1960 to relieve the police of this responsibility. The force has an establish- ment of 442 officers and men, operating in 31 designated areas. This is below strength and in large areas, particularly in Kowloon, the police are still responsible for the control of hawkers.
The disposal of the dead is the responsibility of the Urban Council in the urban areas and of the Urban Services Department in the New Territories.
Nine public cemeteries and two public crematoria are directly controlled by the department; 27 private cemeteries and one private crematorium are under its general supervision. Three funeral par- lours and 27 undertakers are licensed by the Urban Council to arrange funeral services and rites. In addition government provides