SOCIAL WELFARE
133
the year a total of 2,670 persons were under supervision on proba- tion and a total of 6,478 social investigations had been carried out at the request of the courts, including cases referred for welfare assistance of some kind. The correctional service operates five institutions: The Castle Peak Boys' Home is a reformatory school for 150 boys aged 14 and below 16; the O Pui Shan Boys' Home accommodates 140 boys aged below 14; a combined remand home and probation home in Yau Yat Chuen in Kowloon accommodates a total of 160 boys; and another combined home in Ma Tau Wei Road accommodates 45 girls. The fifth institution is a probation hostel at Kwun Tong for young men between the ages of 16 and 21 years who are ordered to reside there as a condition of their proba- tion order. These young men go to work daily and pay for their upkeep at the hostel from their salaries. Voluntary welfare organisa- tions which take a leading part in helping to prevent the spread of juvenile delinquency are the Hong Kong Juvenile Care Centre and the Society of Boys' Centres, which give residential training to those who need help in finding a place in society or in overcoming difficul- ties of behaviour and personal relationships.
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
The present public assistance programme provides assistance, mainly in the form of dry rations, to people who have lived in Hong Kong for five years and whose income is below $40 per adult per month after deducting rent and school expenses. Children under the age of nine are reckoned as half an adult. There are about 7,500 people receiving public assistance at present. With rising standards of living and changes in the concept of social welfare as a means of providing relief to one of social rehabilitation it became increasingly apparent that a more extensive programme of assistance was needed for which Government should bear the ultimate responsibility. A review of broad aims and objectives for public assistance was made by the Social Welfare Department resulting in the introduction of an extended public assistance scheme.
Under the revised scheme all individuals who have resided in the Colony for at least one year and whose per capita income after deducting rent, school expenses and essential travelling expenses is not more than $50 a month will be eligible for assistance.