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INSTITUTIONS.
Among institutions recognised and encouraged, but not to any considerable extent supported by Government may be mentioned the Po Leung Kuk, the Eyre Refuge, the City Hall, and the Chinese Public Dispensaries.
The Po Leung Kuk Society was founded in 1878 to aid in the detection and suppression of kidnapping, especially of girls and women, and to shelter such girls or women as had been kidnapped in the interior and brought to Hong Kong for sale or emigration. Its name means "institution for the protection of good women." The initiative in its formation came from the Chinese themselves, and ever since by subscription and personal service, they have continued to support it.
There is a paid Chinese staff—matron, amahs and nurses, and two clerks who are secretaries to the managing committee. This Committee meets every evening from Monday to Friday at 7 p.m., the principal meeting of the week being held at 12 noon on Sunday. It not only manages the Po Leung Kuk, but acts as an advisory committee to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, in all cases affecting women and children, and Chinese family life generally, which are often extremely difficult and tedious. It corresponds when necessary with charitable institutions and private persons in various parts of China, traces parents of lost children or ill-treated mui tsai, and shelters for the night any Chinese woman or girl who chooses to go. When parents or relations cannot be traced, the Committee arranges for the girls in its care to be given in marriage (never as concubines) or in adoption, always under bond and always with the consent of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs; and in every case that officer ascertains the girl's willingness before giving consent to either adoption or marriage.
In addition to the annual Committee appointed by co-option there is a Permanent Committee, which serves to maintain continuity of policy, and of which the Secretary for Chinese Affairs is the ex-officio chairman.
The number of inmates of the Po Leung Kuk on 1st January, 1930, was 53 and during the year 469 persons were admitted as against 636 in 1929. The existing premises of this institution having become inadequate for the demand made upon it, Government gave a new site in the Eastern part of the town to enable more commodious building to be erected.
The Chinese Public Dispensaries are institutions maintained in order to provide the Chinese with the services of doctors, whose certificates will be accepted by the Registrar of Deaths, and with
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