M 125
(d) INVESTIGATIONS AS TO PREVALENCE OF MALARIA IN CERTAIN AREAS.
(1) Shing Mun Investigation and Prevention.
69. It will be seen on reference to the map that the Camp is situated 500 feet above sea level on ground which slopes southwards from Tai Mo Shan ridge to Gin Drinkers' Bay; east of the Camp is the Shing Mun River. The Gorge where the Dam is being constructed is half a mile distant. The Shing Mun river rises east of Tai Mo Shan, flows south to Pineapple Pass and afterwards turns east to Tidal Cove at Shatin.
70. Flowing south from Tai Mo Shan is a large stream A, with numerous branches which lie on all sides of the Camp. The streams are rocky bedded and boulder strewn, the boulders being of all sizes and shapes, in places the grade of the stream is steep in other places flat. Sometimes the course leads through deep gorges. In some of the valleys, rice fields arranged in terraces have been constructed by building a series of stone walls across them in order to retain the soil thrown down, the stream being usually diverted to one side and used as an irrigation channel, in other instances the water for irrigation is derived from see-pages which drain into ditches.
71. The nearest human habitation to the Camp is the village of Wo Li Hop which is half a mile distant as the crow flies.
72. There are no human habitations in the upper reaches of the Shing Mun, the villagers having migrated, and flooded fallow rice fields were formerly a feature of the tributaries of the stream from Pineapple Pass upwards.
73. At the end of 1933 there were two sets of permanent coolie lines, situated at the heads of streams A3 and A6. In 1934 an additional set of four permanent lines was built on the spur overlooking A3, and occupied in May. Another set of five lines was built on the same spur and occupied in September.
74. The population varied from 712 in the month of January to 1894 in December, the average monthly labour force being 1286 as compared with 595 in 1933.
75. Anti-larval measures within an area of half a mile radius from the Camp, as represented on the map by a circle of 4″ radius were completed by the end of 1933 and extended along the valley of A5 as far as the Access Road. Anti-malarial measures directed against A. jeyporiensis were in operation from Pineapple Pass to the P.W.D. Dam; namely, drainage of the fallow rice fields formerly flooded; early in 1934 these operations were extended as far as the village of Ho Pui.