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estimate that there must be at least 4,000,000 rats, 1 per member of the population in the Colony, Mr. Chairman? Could the Vice-Chairman express his view on that?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: What I am unable to do, Mr. Chairman, is relate the number of rats collected to the number of those still left alive. (Laughter).
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: What is the life cycle of a rat?
CHAIRMAN: That is a new question. (Laughter).
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: Sir, may I finish with my last supplementary as it is related? I have here a complaint from a Chinese newspaper which appeared to-day, that there are rats in Kwun Tong, in Yick Wah Street, as big as cats, and there are rats in Tin Heung Street and also in Tze Loi Lane. Now, this complaint, Mr. Chairman, originally appeared several days ago in the correspondence column of an English language newspaper, and it now reappears to-day in the Chinese press. May I pass it on to you, Sir, through the Secretary, for action? (Mr. CHEONG-LEEN passed the newspaper to the Chairman).
CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
MR. BERNACCHI: Just a last supplementary on the question of Is Dr. COOMBES, in his answer, referring to house rats or is he including field rats that go into houses?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: The common species of rat: Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus. Norvegicus is the large brown rat which is most common. The figure also includes other rodents, mostly mice.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, could I ask one question? I was a little surprised to learn that the rats are taken to the public mortuary for dissection. It does seem a bit strange that they do not go to a laboratory for dissection instead of going to a public mortuary.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: They have been going to public mortuaries for about 40 years. A selection of them are sent to public mortuaries for a post-mortem, and rats who have big spleens, have a spleen smear done. These are sent to the Pathological Institute for examination by a pathologist. If you can suggest somewhere else where these rats could be dissected, the mortuary people would be very pleased.
DR. BELL: As a matter of interest, who does the post-mortem on the rats? Is it the health staff that we were talking about earlier this afternoon?
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DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: No, this is Medical Department staff.
(11) MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:
(a) What is the estimated number of licensed and unlicensed hawkers up-to-date?
(b) What is the projection of (a) licensed and (b) unlicensed hawkers by 1970?
(c) Since the hawker problem is chiefly a socio-economic problem, can the Director of Social Welfare investigate the feasibility of a Family Assistance Scheme to help members of the very poor families to earn a living other than by illegal hawking?
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI, Chairman of Hawkers Select Committee replied as follows:
The answer to the first part of this question is that on 28th March, 1967, there were 33,253 licensed hawkers of all classes in the urban area. It is not easy to estimate the number of unlicensed hawkers, but a calculation carried out in November 1966 indicates that there were altogether 53,700 licensed and unlicensed hawkers in the main concentrations. Assuming that an additional 10% should be added to this figure for hawkers in smaller concentrations, the total number of hawkers would be in the region of 60,000 of whom approximately half were unlicensed at that time. It is of interest that during the last five months there has been an unusual increase in the number of licensed hawkers probably due to the formation of new hawker bazaars in Kowloon and Chai Wan, in which only licensed hawkers could obtain sites.
In reply to the second part of this question, it appears from departmental records of licensed hawkers that the average increase is of the order of 1,500 a year, a rate which may be increasing. Calculated on this basis, the number of licensed hawkers in March 1970 would be approximately 38,000 or, if licensed hawkers increase at a faster rate than hitherto, perhaps 40,000. As regards unlicensed hawkers, it is not possible to give any accurate estimate of numbers. Calculations made in 1957, 1961 and 1966 all suggest that the number of unlicensed hawkers has been, up to now, approximately equal to the number licensed. On
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