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The Tung Wa also maintain a branch hospital for small-pox cases (Chinese only) at Kennedy Town. It contains 70 beds and during 1926, 23 cases were treated.
The Kwong Wa Hospital for Chinese in the Kowloon Peninsula was opened on the 9th October, 1911. It occupies a site having an area of three acres and provides accommodation for 226 patients. The existing buildings contain 226 beds and 6,336 patients were accommodated during 1926. The collection of sub- scriptions and the supervision of the building were undertaken by a special committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. The hospital received a grant of $33,500 in 1926 from the Government.
VII-INSTITUTIONS NOT SUPPORTED BY GOVERNMENT.
Among institutions recognised and encouraged, but not to any considerable extent supported by Government may be mentioned the Pó Leung Kuk, the Eyre Refuge, the City Hall, and the Chinese Public Dispensaries.
The Pó Leung Kuk is a Chinese Society founded in 1878 for the suppression of kidnapping and traffic in human beings. It was incorporated in 1893 and is presided over by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and not more than twelve directors nominated by the Governor. The actual management is entrusted to a committee elected annually by the members of the Society. The Society's buildings have been declared a Refuge under the Women and Girls Protection Ordinance, and almost all women and girls detained by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs under that Ordinance are sent to the Pó Leung Kuk. During 1926 the number of persons admitted was 299 and at the close of the year 45 remained under the care of the Society. The inmates are under the immediate charge of a Chinese matron, and instruction is given them by the matron aud a Chinese teacher in elementary subjects and in needlework.
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 ambulances and dead vans provided in order to remove cases of infectious disease to the Infectious 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. The total cost of maintenance was $77,375 for the year 1925. The Government makes an annual grant of $12,000, and the rest of the cost is defrayed by voluntary subscription. The Dispensaries are conducted by committees under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs.
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VIII. CRIMINAL AND POLICE.
The total of all cases reported to the Police was 20,048 being an increase of 3,265 or 8 3 per cent as compared with 1925. There was in 1926 an increase in serious offences of 599 or 158 per ceut as compared with the previous year. The number of serious offences reported was 185 above the average of the quinquennial period commencing with the year 1922. The number of minor offences reported shows an increase of 2,666 as compared with 1925 and was 3,355 over the average of the quinquennial period.
The total strength of the Police Force in 1926 was Europeans 246, Indians 572, Chinese 946 making a total of 1,761 exclusive of the eight superior officers and staff of clerks and coolies. These figures include police paid for by the Railway and other Government departments. Of this force 16 Europeans, 79 Indians, and 98 Chinese were stationed in the New Territories during the year.
The District Watchmen Force, numbering 122, to which the Government 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. A detective branch of the force has done useful work under the supervision of a European Inspector.
The total number of persons committed to Victoria Gaol was 6,511 as compared with 6,339 in 1925. Of these 1,154 were committed for criminal offences against 613 in 1925. Of committals for non-criminal offences there were 106 less for hawking without a licence, and 2 more for unlawfully cutting trees, than in 1925.
The daily average of prisoners confined in the Gaol was 1,054 the average for 1925 being 1,116, and the highest previous average being 1,066 in 1924. The percentage of prisoners to population, according to the daily average of the former and the estimated number of the latter, was 0-13. The average percentage for the last ten years was 013. Owing, however, to the large floating population, which is constantly moving between the Colony and Chinese Territory, the percentage of crime to population does not convey an accurate idea of the comparative criminality of the residents of the Colony. The Victoria Gaol has accommodation for 700 prisoners including patients in Hospital. The Branch Prison at Laichikok has accommodation for 450 prisoners in association.
The prison discipline was satisfactory, the average of punish- ments per prisoner being 0.49 as compared with 0.71 in 1925 and 0.43 in 1924.
Long sentence prisoners serving two years and upwards are taught useful trades, including printing, book-binding, tin- smithing, mat-making, tailoring, carpentering, etc. The profit on the work done was $148,667.80 as against $122,221.20 in 1925. A sum of $4,029 was received and credited to Government for non-Government work as against $3,758 in 1925.
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