465
10
VIL-INSTITUTIONS NOT SUPPORTED BY GOVERNMENT. Among institutions recognised and encouraged but not to any considerable extent sup- ported by Government may be mentioned the Pó Leung Kuk, the Hongkong College of Medicine, and the City Hall.
The Pó Leung Kuk is an institution, incorporated in 1893, presided over by the Registrar General and an annually-elected Committee of 12 Chinese gentlemen, for the protection of women (and children. The inmates of the Home receive daily instruction in elementary subjects and are allowed to earo pocket-money by needlework. During 1908) a total of 403 persons were admitted. Of these, 86 were released after enquiry, 22 were released under bond, 150 were placed in charge of their husbands, parents, or relations, 14 were placed in charge of the French Consul, 20 were sent to charitable institutions in China, 22 were sent to School, Convent or Refuge, 6 were adopted and 28 were married. One died during the year, one absconded, and fifty-three remained in charge of the Society at the end of the year.
An institution named the Eyre Refuge under Mission auspices, for the same general purposes, was re-organised during the year under a strong Committee, and Government con- tributes a small grant. It is hoped that this institution will work in conjunction with the Po Leung Kuk.
The Hongkong College of Medicine was founded in 1887. The government of the College is vested in the Court, of which the Rector of the College, who has always been a Government official, is President. The Lecturers, who are Government officials or private medical practitioners, each receive a small honorarium, the funds being derived from the fees of the students and a Government grant-in-aid of $2,500. The minimum curriculum of study is five years, and a preliminary examination in general accord with the regulations of the General Medical Council of Great Britain is required. 111 students have been enrolled up to date (May, 1909); and of these 37 have become qualified "licentiates". Most of the licentiates have settled in the Colony, and are exerting a most useful influence in the direction of displacing the native medical methods and popularising Western medical and sanitary knowledge, while a considerable number of them are employed as resident surgeons in the hospitals for Chinese, as medical officers in charge of the Public Dispensaries, and as assistant medical officers on the railway works. The work of the College has thus far been carried on in lecture-rooms and laboratories made available in various hospitals, &c., in different parts of the City. Steps were being taken to provide adequate buildings of its own; but action was suspended when the University Scheme was proposed. (See page 11.) If a University is established, the College well be merged into its Faculty of Medicine."
The City Hall receives an annual grant of $1,200 from Government. It contains a Theatre, some large rooms which are used for balls, meetings, concerts, &c., a Museum in which are some very fair specimens, and a large Reference and Lending Library, to which new volumes are added from time to time, as funds will allow. The Building was erected in 1866-9 by subscription.
Small grants are also given to the Italian Convent ($1,280), the French Convent (both of which take in and tend abandoned or sick infants), the West Point Orphanage, the Seaman's Hospital, and other charitable institutions.
VIII-CRIMINAL AND POLICE.
The total of all cases reported to the Police was 9,562 being a decrease of 1,978 or 17·14 per cent. as compared with 1907. In the division of these cases into serious and minor offences there is a decrease in the former as compared with the previous year of 64 cases or 193 per cent.
The number of serious offences reported was 37 below the average of the quinquennial period commencing with the year 1904. The number of minor offences reported shows a decrease of 1,914 as compared with 1907, and was 1,515 below the average of the quinquennial period.
The total number of persons committed to Victoria Gaol was 4,778 as compared with 5,877 in 1907, but of these only 1,975 were committed for criminal offences, against 2,460 in 1907. Of committals for non-criminal offences there were 394 less under the Prepared Opium Ordinance and 139 less for infringement of Sanitary Bye-laws.
The daily average of prisoners confined in the Gaol was 465, the average for 1907 being 502 and the highest previous average being 720 in 1904. The percentage of prisoners to population, according to the daily average of the former and the estimated number of the latter was 14 as compared with '14, the average procentage for the last ten years.
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Owing however to the large floating population which is constantly moving between the Colony and Canton the percentage of crime to population does not convey an accurate idea of the comparative criminality of the residents of the Colony. A large number of the riff raff's and thieves of South China found their way to Hongkong, and during the year 895 aliens were banished as undesirables-for the most part after conviction for criine.
The prison discipline was satisfactory, the average of punishments per prisoner being 1:27 as compared with 150 in 1907 and 12 in 1906.
The prison is managed on the English prison system as regir is first offenders (star class prisoners) who are when at labour and when located for the night kept apart from old offenders.
Long sentence prisoners serving two years and upwards are taught useful trades, including printing, book-binding, washing, carpentry, boot-making, net-making, painting and white-washing, mat-making, tailoring, oakum-picking, &c. The profit on the work done was $45,420 as against $37,434 in 1907.
There was $5,012 received and credited to Government for non-Government work against $5,790 in 1907.
In consequence of the low number of prisoners in custody at the beginning of the year it was found possible to close the Branch Prison.
The prison was considerably damaged in the typhoon of the 27th July. The work of repairing was immediately taken in hand by the Public Works Department and completed by the end of October,
The total strength of the Police Force for 1908 was Europeans 135, Indians 410, Chinese 501, making a total of 1,046 as compared with 1,048 in 1907 exclusive in each case of the five Superior Officers an I staff of clerks and coolies. These figures include Police paid for by the Railway, Private Firms, and other Government Departments. Of this Force the District Officer, 15 Europeans, 112 Indians and 47 Chinese were stationed in the New Territories during the year.
The force of District Watchmen to which the Government contributes $2,000 per annum was well supported by the Chinese during the year. These watchmen patrol the streets in the Chinese quarter of the City. They are placed on Police beats and are supervised by the European Police on section patrol."
IX.-VITAL STATISTICS.
(4) PORELATION.
The population of the Colony accur ling to the Census taken in 1901 was 283,975 while at the Census taken in 1906 it was 301,967 exclusive of the New Territories, New Kowloon and the Army and Navy Establishments. The estimated population at th: middle of the year under review was 421,499 as follows :-
Non-Chinese Civil Community,....
13,200
Hongkong,
194,460
Chinese Population,
Kowloon,
74,350
Floating Population, Mercantile Marine,..
41,940
2,700
316,450
Army, (average strength),. Navy, (average strength),
4,483
2,355
6,838
New Territories (exclusive of Kowloon),..
85,011
Total......
421,490
(6.) PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION.
During the year under review considerable progress has been made in rendering existing domestic buildings rat proof as a preventive of Plague, 103 ground surfaces of houses have In addition 49 been repaired, and 811 buildings have had rat-runs filled up with cement. basements illegally inhabited have been vacated.
New buildings (domestic) to the number of 148 were erected during the year and in these the effect of the present Ordinance is seen in the increased amount of open space about the houses, which the law requires. Scavenging lanes which have to be provided in the rear of new houses also increase the open space about them and tend to reduce crowding.