provides for the establishment of Juvenile Courts and a Probation Section for Juveniles. Other sections dealing with children in need of care and protection were transferred in 1951 to the Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance 1951. The Industrial and Reformatory Schools Ordinance of 1932 has, since the war, clearly needed drastic revision and the need for a new Probation of Offenders Ordinance had also been recognized. But both these pieces of legislation had to wait upon the creation of an effective Probation Section within the Social Welfare Office, and upon its development.
38. Juvenile Courts were re-established shortly after the war in both the Hong Kong and Kowloon Magistracies. The number of juveniles appearing annually before these courts was very high, running up to 50,000 per year. However, the bulk of the offences were of a trivial nature and consisted for the most part of illegal hawking, obstruction of the streets (also connected with hawking), and breaches of the public health regulations.
The number of more serious offences has consistently compared favourably with any large city in the West. Thus, in 1952 (to take an example at random) out of 37,231 juveniles brought before the courts, only 1,441, or about 4%, were charged with offences other than hawking, etc. Only one in every twenty-six therefore could be described as an "offender" in the true sense of the word. Until early in 1953, cases in both the Hong Kong and Kowloon courts were heard in a court-room which was afterwards used for adults, but recently a small room was secured in Kowloon, which has been in- formally furnished and where juvenile cases were dealt with as far as possible in accordance with modern practice-allowing for the large number of juveniles involved.
In 1951 Government approved the building of a separate Juvenile Court and Remand Home which would in no way be connected physically with the present Magistracies. By early 1954 a suitable site had been allocated in Matauwai Road, Kowloon, and plans were in the process of being prepared. It was hoped that the New Remand Home would be ready for use early in 1955.
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