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In one case an employer had caned his apprentice. was prosecuted by the police, but the case was dismissed.
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In another case there was an allegation of the beating of an adopted daughter no marks of violence were found and the girl seemed contented and well cared for.
Two of the cases concerned mui tsai.
In one of these a girl aged twelve years, the daughter of very poor sampan folk, had been handed over to apparently equally poor sampan folk. She ran away and complained of being beaten and of receiving insufficient food. The only mark of violence on her was an old bruise on the inner side of her thigh and this seemed most unlikely to have been caused by a blow. This girl was handed over to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs and was returned to her mother.
In the other mui tsai case there were complaints that a girl aged fifteen was always being beaten. The matter was referred to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs and the girl was promptly removed from her employer's custody. No marks of violence were found. She was offered accommoda- tion in an orphanage and given time to consider this, but nothing would content her save being allowed to return to her employer. This she was eventually permitted to do under satisfactory independent guarantee for her future proper treatment.
With the exception of the two last mentioned cases, a further case in which the girl was unable to point out the house in which the alleged ill-treatment had taken place, and the case of Plaint No. 126, of which details are given among the selected cases, no complaints of the improper treatment of mui tsai have been brought to the Society's notice during the year.
In numerous cases the Inspectors have found children begging. They, and their parents when discoverable, have been warned.
Under the existing laws and in the absence of reformatory schools or proper places of detention for children there is little that can be done for these children, but in several cases the Society has been able to arrange free schooling and, where poverty has been the cause, to help the family.
The child beggars are not always the children of the very poor: many of the children of people earning decent wages take to begging. The most effective means of putting
a stop to a practice which is bad for the child's morale would be for all to refrain from giving anything to these children.
Five members of the Executive Committee The IIon. Dr. R. H. Kotewall, ('.M.G., Miss Rains, Mr. M. K. Lo, Father Hourigan and Mr. Hazlerigg sat as members of the Committee appointed by His Excellency The Governor in Council to report on the measures required for the institution of Juvenile Courts. An Interim Report accompanied by a draft Bill for a Juvenile Offenders Ordinance was submitted to the Government on the 29th April, and the Final Report, with draft Bills for both a Juvenile Offenders Ordinance and Industrial and Reformatory Schools Ordinance, was forwarded on the 4th July.
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As the Report has been published as a Sessional Paper and has appeared in the press there appears to be no need to deal with the matter in this Report. The urgent necessity for the provision of remand and detention homes and in- dustrial and reformatory schools and for enlarging the powers of the courts is clearly apparent to all who are interested in the welfare of destitute and delinquent children. It was in recognition of the urgent need for institutions such as those above mentioned that the Society in June made a grant of $250 towards the upkeep of the Salvation Army Industrial Home for Women and Girls.
Pending the instituiton of industrial schools, the Society has been able to arrange for destitute boys in the charge of the Tung Wah Hospital authorities to be taught by teachers of the Y.M.C.A.
In October your Committee, concerned as to the pre- valence of tuberculosis among the young, issued posters asking the public to refrain from the habit of promiscuous spitting on the pavements. The pavements are the play- ground of the children of the poor and promiscuous expectora- tion endangers the health and lives of children
Thanks to the efforts of Messrs. J. C. Bollard, Tang Shiu Kin, Ngan Shing Kwan and T. N. Chau, the Society ended its financial year with a balance in hand of $27,153.54 as compared with a balance of $20,105.98 at the end of last
year.
With the expansion of the Society's work there has been a corresponding increase in expenses and the next financial year will see heavy demands on the Society's funds.
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