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the resources of the Colony would be able to meet the distress caused by the typhoon without having recourse to assistance from outside.
39. The first business of the Relief Committee has been to meet the distress among the boating population. This has been done mainly through the agency of the Tung Wa Hospital by a sub-committee of that body presided over by the Registrar-General. Up to the 1st instant, 980 sufferers have been taken in. Of these, 670, after receiving assistance, have left to return to their villages or to seek work. 310 are still in the Hospital.
Funds have also been placed at the disposal of the Assistant Land Officer and Assistant Superintendent of Police at Tai Po to meet cases of want in the part of the New Territories North of the Kowloon Hills caused by the ravages of the typhoon in Mirs Bay and in the rice fields on its shores. As reported to Your Lordship on the 25th September, so many entire families of the boating community have been lost that the number to be relieved is relatively small compared to the extent of the disaster. The way in which men, women, and children all went down together in their floating homes is one of its saddest features.
40.