M 13
(6) Interments:
The following table shows the number of interments at the various cemeteries during the year 1925:-
PUBLIC PRIVATE Colonial 62 Roman Catholic (Happy Valley) 146 Mt. Caroline 973 Mohamedan (Happy Valley) 68 Chai Wan 354 Jewish (Happy Valley) 1 Chai Wan Christian Parsee Stanley 27 Malay 1 Aberdeen 237 Chinese Roman Catholic Shek O. 9 Chinese Permanent 89 Kai Lung Wan East 1,195 Chinese Protestant 71 Sai Yu Shek 151 Chinese Christian, Kowloon 50 So Kon Po 1,439 Eurasian (Ho Tung) 4 Ho Man Tin 4,687 Tung Wah Hospital 5,318 Tai Shek Ku 4 7,703 7,18717.-BIRTHS AND DEATHS REGISTRATION.
The General Registration Office established by Ordinance No. 7 of 1896, as amended by Ordinance No. 26 of 1923, for registration of both births and deaths is situated at the Sanitary Department, Head Office.
At this office all non-Chinese births and deaths must be registered. Chinese are required to register in the district within which the birth or death occurred. A list of such district registries for births and deaths respectively is appended. Yaumati, Nos. 2 and 7 Police Stations are available for registration of deaths on Sundays and Public Holidays only, when the General Registration office is closed. The Head of the Sanitary Department is ex officio Registrar and has appointed the Police officers in charge of stations, the Inspector in charge of Kowloon Disinfecting Station and the principal clerks in charge of Dispensaries on the appended list as assistant registrars.
Death registration, being a necessary preliminary to burial, is almost universal but there is considerable ignorance of the law among Chinese as regards registering of births. As a proof of this it may be pointed out that the records of registered midwives show a total of 7,603 births, whereas only 3,654 births were actually registered during the year. Female births in particular are frequently not registered. This is no doubt due to the presence of a large fluctuating population completely unaccustomed to the system.