SOCIAL WELFARE
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assistance is also available from grants made from the Li Po Chun Charitable Trust Fund which is administered by the Director of Social Welfare. The number of families who received public assist- ance during the year was 6,775, as compared with 4,648 in 1967. A number of voluntary agencies including the Catholic Relief Services, the Children's Meal Society, Co-operative for American Relief Everywhere, Hong Kong Christian Service and the Seventh Day Adventists Welfare Service, operate supplementary feeding schemes for those in need.
A number of natural disasters occurred during the year, and a number of those who sustained damage or loss to their property were given assistance in cash from the Community Relief Trust Fund, for which the Director of Social Welfare Incorporated is the trustee. There were altogether 36 fires, 46 closures of build- ings in danger of collapse, one shipwreck during the year; as a result 5,465 people were registered for relief and payments from the Community Relief Trust Fund totalled $1,213,512. The worst disasters during the year were a fire which broke out in February in a factory building at Shun Ning Road which caused 19 deaths; a heavy rainstorm in June causing landslides at Shau Kei Wan and Tai Hang which caused 22 deaths and made hundreds homeless; and typhoon Shirley, which struck Hong Kong in August and caused heavy losses to farm land, crops, livestock and buildings in the New Territories.
Public assistance and emergency relief is administered by the Family Services Division. Public assistance officers also assist the Director of Legal Aid by making enquiries into the financial circumstances of those who apply to him for legal aid. During the year 1,065 cases were investigated, compared with 1,103 in 1967.
PROBATION AND CORRECTIONS
The Probation and Correction Services of the Social Welfare Department have a dual role: the supervision of offenders on probation and the correction of juveniles in institutions. The Probation Service, with a staff of over 45 trained officers, served all levels of courts in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories. At the end of the year a total of 1,788 persons were under supervision on probation. A total of 6,261 social investi- gations were carried out at the request of the courts, including