M 4
years' burials: but it would seem advisable to make provision in 1919 for an extensive exhumation of the older parts of this cemetery and for laying out the ground so cleared in terraces on the plan of the Government Cemeteries. The haphazard methods employed in the past have caused considerable waste of ground.
The exhumation of the old cemetery at Mount Davis (Mo Sing Leng) was completed, 1,658 sets of bones being removed to the urning ground on Aplichau.
On the east side of Happy Valley near the foot of Broadwood Road portions of a very old Chinese burial ground were exhumed to make room for new buildings—338 sets of bones being removed to the urning ground at So Kon Po.
There were 37 cremations, 26 at the Japanese Crematorium So Kon Po and 11 at the Sikh Temple.
DISEASES.
The incidence of plague was extremely light, only 39 cases having been reported. Of these, 11 were imported. There was again a slight increase in the number of cases of enteric fever, 220 cases having been reported as against 198 in 1915 and 140 in 1914. An epidemic of small-pox began in January, it subsided during the hot weather, but recommenced in the winter and reached its height at the end of the year. The Vaccination Campaign which proved most successful was organised to combat it.
There was again a slight increase in the deaths from malaria as compared with the last two years but this was probably due to the large number of refugees who came into the Colony. The same cause will account for the considerable increase in deaths from respiratory and tuberculous diseases during the year.
A suspected case of rabies was reported from the New Territories but the animal (a dog) was destroyed and the diagnosis therefore lacks confirmation. The person bitten received the Pasteur treatment at Saigon and remained healthy.
POPULATION.
The last Census was taken in 1911. For the purpose of the Tables in the report of the Medical Officer of Health the population is estimated by the usual methods to the middle of the year; but the population has been so much disturbed by frequent immigrations of Chinese refugees that too much reliance should not be placed on these figures. It is estimated that there were 120,000 such refugees in the Colony at one period in 1916 and this is a factor of the greatest importance in considering the apparent rise in the Chinese death rate of 46 per 1,000. It is also the chief reason for the decrease in the number of nuisance-notices served, since with this heavy extra pressure on the already inadequate housing of the Colony, some temporary relaxation of the law with regard to cubicles was unavoidable.
Page 225
Page 226