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The
The Hongkong College of Medicine was founded in 1887. government of the College is vested in the Court, of which the Rector of the College, who has always been a Government official, is Presidout. The lecturers, who are Government officials or privato medical practitioners, each receive a small honorarium, the funds being derived from the fees of the students and a Government grant-in-aid of $2,500. The minimum curriculum of study is five years, and the preliminary examination has been accepted by the General Medical Council of Great Britain. 124 students have been enrolled up to date (March, 1911); and of these 13 have become qualified "licentiatos". Most of the licentiates have settled in the Colony, and are exerting a most useful influence in the direction of displacing the native medical methods and popularising Western medical and sanitary knowledge, while a considerable number of them are employed as resident sur- geons in the hospitals for Chinese, as medical officers in charge of the Public Dispensaries, and as assistant medical officers on the rail- way works. The work of the College has thus far been carried on in lecture-rooms and laboratories made available in various hospitals, etc., in different parts of the City. Steps were being taken to provide adequate buildings of its own; but action was suspended when When the University is the University Scheme was proposed. opened, the College will be merged into ita Faculty of Medicine.
The City Hall receives an annual grant of $1,200 from Govern- ment. It contains a theatre, some large rooms which are used for balls, meetings, concerts, etc., a museum in which are some very fair specimens, and a large reference and lending library, to which new volumes are added from time to time, as funds will allow. The building was erected in 1866-9 by subscription.
Small grants are also given to the Italian Convent ($1.280), the French Convent, (both of which take in and tend abandoned or sick infants), the West Point Orphanage, the Seamen's Hospital, and other charitable institutions.
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 the services of interpreters who can assist the inmates of houses where a case of infectious disease has occurred. Coolies are engaged and anbulances and dead vans provided in order to remove cases of in- fectious disease to the Infections Diseases Hospital and dead bodies to the Mortuary. The Dispensaries receive sick infants and send them to one or other of the Convents and arrange for the burial of dead infants. Free advice and medicine are given and patients are attended at their houses. There are eight Dispensaries in existence including one for the boat population on a hulk in Causeway Bay.
The total cost of maintenance, which is defrayed by voluntary subscription, was $35,272. The Dispensaries are conducted by committees under the chairmanship of the Registrar General.
VIIL--CRIMINAL AND POLICE,
The total of all cases reported to the Police was 9,789 being a decrease of 30 or 03 per cent. as compared with 1909.
In the
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division of these cases into serious and minor offences there is an increase in the former as compared with the previous year of 263 or 7.86 per cent.
The number of serious offences reported was 242 over the average of the quinquennial period commencing with the year 1906. The number of minor offences reported shows a decrease of 293 as compared with 1909, and was 823 below the average of the quin- quennial period.
The total strength of the Police Force for 1910 was Europeans 133, Indians 384, Chinese 525, making a total of 1,042 as compare: with 1,054 in 1909 exclusive in each case of the five superior officers and stalf of clerks and coolies. These figures include police paid for by the railway and other Government Departments, and by private firms. Of this force 13 Europeans, 99 Indians and 47 Chinese were stationed in the New Territories during the year, under the District Officer.
The District Watchmen Force, numbering 124, to which the Govermuent contributes $2,000 per annum was well supported by the Chinese during the year. These watchmen patrol the streets in the Chinese quarter of the City. They are placed on police beats and are supervised by the European police on section patrol.
The total number of persons committed to Victoria Gaol was 4,867 as compared with 5,215 in 1909. Of these 1,212 were com- mitted for criminal offences, against 1,325 in 1909. Of commit- tals for non-criminal offences there were 296 more under the Pre- pared Opium Ordinance and 21 less for infringement of Sanitary Bye-laws.
The daily average of prisoners confined in the Gaol was 547, the average for 1909 being 560 and the highest previous average being 726 in 1904. The percentage of prisoners to population, according to the daily average of the former and the estimated number of the latter was '14, which is the average percentage for the last fen years. Owing, however, to the large floating population, which is constantly moving between the Colony and Canton, the percentage of crime to population does not convey an accurate idea of the com- parative criminality of the residents of the Colony. The Gaol, as the result of recent extensions, has now accommodation for 590 prisoners.
The prison discipline was satisfactory, the average of punish- ments per prisoner being 133 as compared with 138 in 1909 and 1:27 in 1908.
Long sentence prisoners serving two years and upwards are taught useful trades, including printing, book-binding, washing, carpentry, boot-making, net-naking, painting and white-washing, mat-making, tailoring, oakum-picking, etc. The profit on the work done was $48,902 as against 843,946 in 1909.
There was $1,253 received and credited to Government for non- Government work against $1.800 in 1909.
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