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Four Inspectors went on leave and three returned from leave during the year. One Inspector resigned to rejoin the Royal Army Medical Corps and one was granted leave to volunteer for service with the Forces.
As plague was very light these two officers were not replaced during 1915.
LEGISLATION.
Two new By-laws were passed by the Board :—
(a) Exempting the Chinese Permanent Cemetery at Aberdeen from the operation of the Cemetery By-laws.
(b) Empowering the Board to carry out cleansing and limewashing in tenement houses which have not been cleansed and limewashed by their owners within the appointed periods and to charge the cost of the work to the defaulting owners.
These new powers have been used fairly extensively in Kowloon and have greatly improved the condition of the premises to which they have been applied. Unfortunately, however, their operation has been misunderstood by not a few Chinese owners and serious reflections have been made on the honesty of the Inspectors who have called for their application. It would seem advisable therefore to use this By-law as little as possible in future and to endeavour to improve the standard of limewashing in tenement houses by other methods, e.g., by compiling a list of satisfactory contractors and requiring the work to be done by one of their number.
CEMETERIES AND CREMATORIA.
Two new cemeteries were appointed—both reserved for the reception of remains exhumed from other authorised cemeteries—the one at Ap Li Chau for Hongkong and that at Tai Shek Ku for Kowloon.
The old Po Kong Po Cemetery near Kowloon City, closed in 1903, was completely exhumed by the Tung Wa Hospital at Government expense, 1,636 sets of bones being removed.
Work was also begun on the exhumation of a very old Chinese cemetery on the N.E. slope of Mount Davis, just above the Cattle Depôts. A small portion of this cemetery, containing a few large graves and a memorial shrine, has been permanently reserved to the Tung Wa Hospital.