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II. PUBLIC HEALTH

INTRODUCTION

49. The Director of Medical & Health Services is respon- sible for public health administration throughout the Colony. However an Urban Council exercises control over matters of general sanitation in the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon, Senior public health personnel of the Medical De- partment are seconded to the Urban Council for duty in the urban areas over which the Urban Council has jurisdiction.

50. A medical officer of health advises the District Adminis- tration in the New Territories which is substantially a rural area containing several small townships.

Urban Areas.

61. Under the control of a Senior Health Officer, two Health Officers, seconded to the Urban Council, have respon- sibilities on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon. Also in those areas are Senior Health Inspectors and Health Inspectors em- ployed by the Urban Council. This staff is generally supervised by the Deputy Director of Health Services.

52. For purposes of public health administration the urban areas are divided into districts and these in their turn into sub- districts each of which is the responsibility of a Health In- spector. In Hong Kong there are sixty-two sub-districts and in Kowloon twenty-five. The Health Inspector is responsible for the general sanitary supervision of his sub-district, the investi- gation of infectious disease and the carrying out of disinfection and disinfestation.

53. Other duties of Inspectors include the supervision of dairies, milk and food inspection and sampling, control of wet cultivation, and the supervision of hawkers, markets, abattoirs, cemeteries, etc.

54. A pest control officer is responsible for anti-rodent measures in the urban areas.

55. The department is also responsible for anti-epidemic work, health education of the public, port health work, the opera- tion of maternal and child health services which includes a school health programme, social hygiene work, tuberculosis and malaria and mosquito control.

Rural Areas.

56. The Medical Officer of Health, New Territories has under his jurisdiction an area of some 350 square miles which includes numerous islands and has a population of about 200,000.

57. His staff consiate of a Senior Health Inspector and five Health Inspectors each of whom is responsible for a district of the New Territories wherein he supervises all public health matters.

HYGIENE & SANITATION

Refuse Removal & Conservancy Services.

58. Refuse removal and conservancy services in the Urban Council area are the responsibility of a Superintendent of Sanitary Services under whom a Chief Health Inspector directly superintends the work.

59. Two systems of night soil disposal are in operation, (2) a water carriage system with sewers serving part of the City of Victoria and discharging directly into the harbour and (b) bucket conservancy which is necessitated in certain areas by the old type of premises prevailing. It is the single bucket system which operates generally but the two pail pilot scheme initiated in Kowloon in the previous year to serve 320 houses was extend- ed to serve 100 floors on Hong Kong Island. This worked very

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