VII-INSTITUTIONS NOT SUPPORTED BY GOVERNMENT.
Among institutions recognised and encouraged but not to any considerable extent supported 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 earn 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 contributes 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 will 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 1.93 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 726 in 1904. The percentage of prisoners to population, according to the daily average of the former and the estimated number of the latter was 1.4 as compared with 1.4, the average percentage for the last ten years.