-50
47. The expenditure (recurrent) on the Territories may be reckoned at about $200,000, of which some $90,000 is spent on Police, $50,000 on the General Administration and Land Work, and $50,000 on Public Works.
:
VII. HEALTH.
48. In the early days of the New Territories, the Police suffered severely from Malarial Fever in 1900 154 were admitted to hospital on that account, and 99 in 1901. This prevalence of fever was probably due, in the first place, to the temporary nature of many stations, and secondly to the turning up of soil for building. Efforts were made without delay to diminish the sickness. It was not possible to do much in reducing the breeding places of mosquitoes owing to the enormous expense involved, and prophylactic measures were therefore relied upon. The use of mosquito nets was insisted upon and quinine was administered daily in small doses to all New Territory Police. Owing to these measures and to the improved condition of their quarters, the returns for fever sank thenceforward to a very moderate figure, and the average of admissions to hospital for Malarial Fever was less than 33 annually from 1902 to 1910. The work on the railway from 1906 to 1909 was often attended with much fever, and special arrangements had to be made to cope with it.
49. At Taipo a dispensary was opened in 1901 and put under the charge of a Chinese licenciate, who also made tours of the Territory, and attended on any occasions when his assistance was required. A Doctor was appointed in 1906 to look after the railway em- ployés, and early in 1907 a small cottage hospital was fitted up in Taipo, chiefly for the purpose of taking cases from the Railway Works: there were 32 patients in 1907, 51 in 1908, and 35 in 1909. The Railway Medical Officer has now, after the completion of the Railway, become Medical Officer to the New Territories, in addition to duties in Kowloon. He resides in Kowloon.
50. At present the New Territory Stations, with one or two exceptions, may be con- sidered to be quite healthy, and the health of the Police is as good there as in Hongkong.
VIII-FORESTRY.
51. Considering the hilly character of the New Territories, there is a remarkable, absence of natural forests: the hills are almost entirely covered with grass and brushwood, and out of about 300 square miles of hilly country, the areas of natural forest only total some 5,200 acres or a little over 8 square miles. These have survived either on inaccessible or specially well-watered parts of the hills, or in the neighbourhood of villages, which respect them from superstitious motives: elsewhere the growth has long failed to keep pace with the depredations of the inhabitants. The absence of trees from the plains is no doubt partly due to the fact that they harbour birds which are destructive to the crops, and for that reason alone the farmers would object to trees round their fields.
52. After the Territory was taken over, the Forestry Department commenced the planting of trees, chiefly pine-trees, in the neighbourhood of Police Stations, and along the main road to Taipo: in 1903 and the following years extensive planting was continued along the Southern slopes of the Kowloon Hills, and latterly trees have been planted along the road running through the New Territory from Castlepeak to Sha Tau Kok : but few of these have survived the attentions of the cattle. The total area of pine-trees planted by the Government is about 4,000 acres, and although the villagers have been unable to preserve the natural forests, they have in many parts succeeded in keeping up pine- plantations.
53. On 15th March, 1904, a scheme was submitted for the afforestation of the New Territories, and a committee formed to report on the subject. The issue of forestry licences was recommended, and put in the hands of the Superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department. Difficulties however arose as the question was largely one of land settlement, and the reissue of new licences was placed in the hands of the Assistant Land Officer from 1st January, 1906. The object was not to raise revenue but to define the rights of the villages and private individuals to such pine plantations as then existed. It was hoped that more economical methods of cultivation might be introduced and that the rights of the Government over unclaimed areas would be defined. In 1908 the control of pine plantations was handed over to the local District Officers.
54. The charge for forestry licences is $1.00 for every 10 acres, and the land for which licences are now issued amounts to about 59,000 acres. The licences are given only for the right to grow and cut pine-trees, and the rights over wild trees are expressly