10
The optical workshop made spectacles for 100 children.
Some 61,531 children were inoculated against cholera, 36,682 were vaccinated against amallpox, 3,452 received the first dose of alum precipitated toxoid and 3,211 both Arst and second doses in the anti-diphtheria campaign.
The Inspection of 204 existing schools and thirty-two premises where it was desired to establish new schools was carried out by the school medical staff. Defects found in the course of these inspections are tabulated at Appendix C. (2). In all cases, recommendations for adjusting all such defects were made to the school managers through the Education Authority.
During the months of September and October, 1946, a nutritional survey was carried out in four schools in Hong Kong and Kowloon. The schools were selected as providing human material from four strata of society.
Dr. Mary King reporting on the results stated:
"As has been made quite clear in this survey, the objective signs of any of the well-
known deficiency diseases are few and far between.'
The percentage number of defects found among 1,714 pupils examined in the survey were as follows:-
Loss of muscle tone
7
Eyes:-
Skia
xerosis
13.1
lose of visual acuity.
0.2
dryness .. sepsis
...10
Bitot'a spota
... 4.3
night blindness
0.03 0.02
hyperkeratosis
0.8
pigmentation
0.4
Ears:
Mouth
deafness
poor oral hygiene.
6.1
gingivitis
4.1
cheilitis
2.1
Acroparaesthesia
(iii) Labour conditions.
0.1
0.4
The tide of Immigration from China ensured that there was no shortage of labour in Hong Kong during the year.
Since the majority of the factories and workshops had been systematically destroyed by the Japanese, possibly to prevent the Colony from ever being a trade competitor in future, and much of the shipbuilding and repairing yards bad suffered severe war-damage, there was less need for such labour than before the war, On the other hand, skilled labour of the artisan class was needed for rehabilitation work and while there was no dearth of casual, unskilled labour, carpenters, masons, joiners, mechanics, etc., were in short supply.
The shortage of skilled workmen had the unfortunate effect of skying wages In shipbuilding and repairing to such an extent that it became more economical to take ships home for repair, painting and the like in the shipyards of Great Britain. This applied to a relatively small proportion of the total labour market, Real hard- ship was suffered by the less fortunate and much larger section of unskilled labourers, although even they were better off than their brothers of the "white collar" class.
The Labour Department did its best to lighten the burden, firstly, by encourag- ing employees, including Government departments, to reduce the hours of work to an eight hour day without any reduction in wages; and, secondly, by allowing about 20,000 workers employed on heavy manual labour in the docks, etc., to purchase an additional half catty of rice (Just ander eleven ounces) at 60 cents per catty to augment the quarter of a catty obtainable under the Government rationing scheme för 20, later. 25 cents per catty.
Reference has been made in another portion of this report to the difficulties which the average worker finds in making use of the flour ration which, theoretically at any rate, makes up for the inadequate rice ration.
Vegetables, meat, fish, eggs and beans, all of which formed a part of the dietary of the better-off workman, were well-night unobtainable, at least in reasonable quantity to ensure a balanced diet, on account of their enhanced cost
11
For purposes of comparison, it is interesting to study the cost of fuel and food said to be enough for one person for a week for 1941 (November), and January and December, 1946.
Commodities:
Cattics;"
November,
1941
Count:
January, 1048
December.
1946
Rice
7.3
$1.1520
$ 1.4400
8 4.2000
Vegetables
1.0
.0380
Salt cabbage
.0200
1.0450 .1400
.8360
.2800
Oil
.2800
2.7930
1.5680
Tea
.0800
.9600
.9600
Salt fish
.0600
1.0960
.5730
Fresh fish
.+
.1000
.8320
.6600
Pork
.3
.3600
1.4400
.9660
Firewood
10.0
3000
1.5000
1.0000
Bean curd
14 pcs.
.0700
7000
.7000
$2.4600
$11.9450
$11.7430
After food comes housing. About one fifth of working-class tenements, were destroyed during the war and the Japanese occupation. It is calculated that over 160,000 persons were dispossessed as the result.
Tenements in working-class districts became grossly overcrowded with the return to Hong Kong from China of former residents. An abnormal amount of wages had to be spent in rent. Thousands lived in the unauthorised shacks or on the rubble heaps in partially demolished buildings. The housing of the working-class demanda urgent action.
Clothing was expensive and the average worker had to make do with his old clothes, however ragged and shabby. A certain amount of relief was afforded to a fraction of the population by the distribution of gifts of clothes from U.N.R.R.A.
Transport constituted another real difficulty for workers unless they lived on or near their place of employment. Trams, buses and ferries were quite unable to cope with the crowds of would-be passengers, although this improved a little towards the end of the year when certain of the bus companies were able to place a larger number of vehicles on the road and taxicab companies came back into service for the better-off who no longer had to struggle for standing room in a public vehicle.
The energetic efforts of the director of education and his staff made it possible for over 90,000 school children to be catered for in schools by the end of 1946. So many of the finest school buildings had been tooted during the war, that the remainder had to be used for two school sessions a day, one lot of scholars attending morning and the other afternoon school.
Every effort was made to rehabilitate all hospitals, dispensaries and welfare centres as quickly as staff and materials permitted, so that workers, apart from other sections of the community, could enjoy medical services when needed.
Strikes occurred during the year, but with one excaption, they were settled expeditionsly by the Labour Department before they affected the well-being of the community to any serious extent.
With the guidance of exparienced trade union leaders and with the develop- ment of workers cooperatives, the labour situation should improve.
All possible credit must be given to certain enlightened employers of labour* who did their utmost in 1946 to improve the housing and feeding of their workers. This includes such major industrial concerns as the Talkoo Dockyard and Engineering Company, Limited.
(iv) Social hygiene,
The Social Hygiene Section of the Health Division of the department was fully occupied in 1946 in endeavouring to cope with the aftermath of the Japanese occupation. For six months during the summer the department was fortunate enough to bave the services of Major L. W. H. Bertie, R.A.M.C., Command Venereologist.
*1 catty-1 lbs. approximately.