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Enquiries have been received from Singapore regarding the methods adopted in Hongkong to put a stop to "dumping" and a copy of Mr. Irving's report of the 26th February was sent to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs.
The confidence which the dispensaries are beginning in various degrees to inspire is very well seen from the statistics given in Table XVIII which shews the number of infants—alive and dead—taken to the dispensaries and whether the address from which they came was reported or not. At the Western Dispensary, the first started, and the one in which the keenest local interest is taken, the number of live infants has risen from 207 to 256 and the number of dead bodies dropped from 268 to 151, the number of dead bodies from an unknown address falling from 167 to 20. The East Point Dispensary, which was opened at the same time, is more backward and there it is a matter of congratulation that although the cases in which the address is unknown have risen from 4 to 53 the number of dead bodies has risen at the same time from 52 to 166. At the Central Dispensary, opened two years after the other two, progress is marked by a large increase of the cases in which the address is known, the number of those in which the address is unknown remaining the same.
The returns kept by the Police shew that in 1905 and the four succeeding years the number of bodies dumped was 1,068, 1,447, 1,273, 989 and 381. For the purpose of comparison between the years 1908 and 1909, I take the figures given in my office returns which are 1,005 (instead of 989) and 381.
The effect of the crusade against dumping was not apparent until August, 1908. In the first seven months of 1908 the number of bodies abandoned was 748, in the last five months 257. In 1909 the corresponding figures were 223 and 158. In Victoria the number for the year has dropped from 377 in 1908 to 111 in 1909, in Kowloon from 341 to 80. The Harbour population is the worst offender and I do not anticipate much improvement until the second half of 1910. In comparing the figures for the last two years the absence of any serious epidemic in 1909 must not be lost sight of.
DISTRICT PLAGUE HOSPITALS.
No occasion has arisen to use the plague hospitals at Kowloon City and Hunghom. The West Point District Plague Hospital, attached to which is a dispensary, was completed at a cost of $10,046 and occupied on the 1st September. It was formally opened on the 20th September and the event celebrated by a "tea-party". The Government has not contributed more than $600 towards the cost of the buildings. The balance was raised by the Saiyingpun Street Committee. A gap of nearly $1,100 between receipts and expenditure was filled up by an individual subscription of $470 from Mr. Tong Wan-teng and by the proceeds of a twenty-five dollar "whip" among Mr. Lau Chü-pak's friends.
The site which was purchased at Wanchai for a plague hospital was placed in possession of the Committee at the end of June and in October the Government granted an adjacent area of 62 feet by 40 feet.