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The total number of exhumations amounted to 1,520. 824 permits were issued to relatives of the deceased of which 89 were subsequently cancelled for various reasons leaving 735 which were acted upon. The total of 1,520 includes these private disinterments and those carried out by the Tung Wah Hospital (785) already referred to above. Of the bodies exhumed 500 were removed from the Colony and 1,020 re-buried within the Colony. (In the case of re-burial in the Colony the bones are placed in a jar and removed to a site set apart for the purpose.)
SCAVENGING.
5. Special attention has been paid to the question of Scavenging in the City of Victoria and Kowloon during the past eighteen months. It was not possible, however, to effect any changes of importance until the old contracts expired. The City contracts ended on 31st December, 1909, and the Kowloon Scavenging and Conservancy Contract was cancelled in March, 1910. The City contracts, of which there were two, included:-
1. The surface scavenging of the City and the removal of household refuse therefrom to certain fixed points on the sea-front.
2. The removal of the refuse collected from the points above mentioned out to sea to be there disposed of.
Until the end of 1909 both these contracts were in the hands of one contractor who carried out his work in an unsatisfactory manner. For this reason it was decided to divide the City into an Eastern and a Western Division for scavenging purposes and to let contracts for these two divisions to separate persons for a period of three years. A new contract for the disposal of this refuse was let to a third contractor for one year only, as a scheme was under consideration for carrying out the work of disposal of refuse departmentally. The result of the division of the collection contract into two was a considerable reduction in the total cost of collection. During the year the scheme for carrying out the work of disposal by means of lighters and steam-barges was matured and came into operation on 1st January, 1911. Two steam-barges and three lighters were purchased and fitted up during 1910 for their new work at a cost of $20,000.
In Kowloon the new Scavenging and Conservancy Contract which began on 1st January, 1909, appeared to be let at too low a figure, and worked badly from the start, the contractor being apparently unable to fulfil the terms of his contract. Matters reached a climax early in 1910 when the contractor's men refused to work. It was thereupon decided by the Government on the recommendation of the Sanitary Board to cancel the contract on 1st March, 1910. The Conservancy Contract was then let as a separate revenue contract for $5,400 per annum and the scavenging work was undertaken departmentally. Kowloon was divided into 5 districts with a staff of 5 foremen and 90 coolies to do the surface scavenging; eleven bullock carts with drivers to collect the material scavenged and also the household refuse; and a steam-barge to convey the refuse out...