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OTHER GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS.
The Prison, Observatory, Post Office, Educational Establishments and other Government institutions are dealt with under separate heads.
VII.-INSTITUTIONS NOT SUPPORTED BY GOVERNMENT.
Among institutions recognized and encouraged but not to any considerable extent supported by Government may be mentioned the Pó Leung Kuk, the College of Medicine for Chinese, and the City Hall. The Pó Leung Kuk is an institution presided over by the Registrar General and an annually-elected Committee of twelve Chinese gentlemen, for the protection of women and children. The inmates of the Home receive daily instruction in elementary subjects and are allowed to earn pocket-money by needle-work. During 1903 a total of 826 persons were admitted, of whom 632 were women, 134 young girls, and 60 small boys. Of these, 360 were restored to their parents or sent to charitable institutions in China, 24 were sent to missionary schools and convents. 22 were married, 15 adopted, and 409 allowed to leave. The Home is medically attended by one of the Colonial Sur- geons.
The Hongkong College of Medicine for Chinese was founded in 1887, for the purpose of teaching surgery, medicine and obstetrics to Chinese. The govern- ment of the College is vested in the Court, of which the Rector of the College, who has always been a Government official, is President. 78 students have been enrolled up to the end of 1903, and of these 19 have become qualified licentiates and have obtained various posts under Government and elsewhere. The institution is of great value in spreading a knowlege of Western medical science among the Chinese; and in addition to the employment of certain of the licentiates in the public service the senior students have frequently been made use of for various purposes during epidemics. A Government grant-in-aid of $2,50. is made to the College, to be used as honoraria to the lecturers.
The City Hall receives an annual grant of $1,200 from Government. It cou- tains a reference library and a museun.
VIII-CRIMINAL AND POLICE.
گھر
The total of all cases reported to the Police was 11,251, as againt 10,421 in 1902, being an increase of 830 or 7.96 per cent. In the division of these cases into Serious and Minor Offences there appears an increase, as compared with 1902, of 863 cases or 21.58 per cent. in the former, and a decrease of 33 cases or .51 per cent. in the latter. The increase in crime was principally in respect of larceny. The Police Force is composed of a Captain Superintendent, a Deputy and 2 Assistant Superin- tendents, and three contingents of Europeans, Indians and Chinese. The European contingent consists of 133 men, the Chinese of 421, and the Indian of 367, making a grand total of 921 besides the superior officers already named and a staff of clerks and coolies. Of this Force, one Assistant Superintendent (who also acts as Police Magistrate) and 14 Europeans, 96 Indians and 43 Chinese were stationed in the New Territory during the greater part of the year. After September the number of Indians was reduced to 80
The number of prisoners admitted to Victoria Gaol under the sentences of the ordinary Courts was 7,144, besides 74 soldiers and sailors sentenced by Courts Mar- tial. The daily average number of prisoners confined in the Gaol was 653, the largest number on record. In 1902 the number was 576, and in 1901 it was 499. As a means of relieving the congested state of the Gaol pending the erection of a Convict Prison the Belilios Reformatory was fitted up as a temporary prison, and short-sentence prisoners are now located in that building. The remunerative labour carried on in the Gaol consists of printing and book-binding, carpentry, boot- making, knitting, painting and whitewashing, mat-making, oakum-picking, &c. The value of their earnings during the year amounted to $31,489.