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HEALTH
families are being encouraged to seek help through public assistance and other services provided by the government and voluntary welfare agencies.
In the New Territories, there are an estimated 14,140 hawkers and control is exercised through six General Duties Teams.
Abattoirs
More than 3.02 million pigs and 183,000 cattle were slaughtered in 1979 in the two abattoirs at Kennedy Town on Hong Kong Island and Cheung Sha Wan in Kowloon. These two abattoirs supply the bulk of the population with fresh meat.
The 'on-the-rail' cattle dressing line at Kennedy Town Abattoir became fully operational in January, 1979. Modernisation of the cattle dressing line at Cheung Sha Wan Abattoir is proceeding.
Meat and offal condemned in the abattoirs as unfit for human consumption are sent to the by-products plant at Kennedy Town Abattoir for processing. The by-products, which have agricultural and industrial uses, are subsequently sold by public tender.
There are two licensed private slaughterhouses in the New Territories supervised by government health inspectors.
Cemeteries and Crematoria
The Urban Council provides inexpensive funeral facilities in the urban areas by operating two depots and the Hung Hom Public Funeral Parlour. Free funeral services are rendered, if necessary. The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals also provides non-profit-making funeral services.
The officially-encouraged trend towards cremation instead of burial continues, and the ratio of cremation to burials in 1979 was 48:52. A replacement for the existing Diamond Hill Crematorium in Kowloon came into service in August, 1979. The urban areas have five public cemeteries, two public crematoria and 19 private cemeteries, and the New Territories have five public cemeteries, two public crematoria and seven private cemeteries.
New Territories Services Department
The New Territories region of the Urban Services Department was renamed the New Territories Services Department in April, 1979. Its responsibilities and functions are the same in the New Territories as those of the Urban Services Department in the urban areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. D
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There are eight district urban services offices Kwai Chung, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Tai Po, Sha Tin, Sai Kung and Islands. Overall co-ordination, planning and policy matters rest with the departmental headquarters, which is headed by a director who is responsible to the Director of Urban Services.
During the year, the activities of the department were expanded because of the rapid development and increasing population of the New Territories. A total of five capital projects were completed, including a new crematorium at Kwai Chung which came into service in November. A further 199 new projects are being planned including markets, pleasure and sports grounds, indoor games halls, cultural complexes, swimming pools, beach buildings, crematoria and columbaria, public toilets and refuse collection points.
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