Adoptions
181. An adopted Children Register is maintained at the General Register Office under the Adoption Ordinance. Table XLIII shows the relationship of adopters to the children adopted under the Adoption Ordinance in the past five years with figures for the 5 years from 1st January 1959 to 31st December 1963 shown in brackets. The numbers of adoptions over the past 11 years from the date of first entry in the Adopted Children Register on 22nd July 1957 have been as follows:
Total
Male
Female
11
18
29
:
26
60
86
:
:
:
33
64
97
32
95
127
:
63
121
184
65
112
177
•
|
...
...
...
46
99
145
51
60
111
47
76
123
45
60
105
39
54
93
57
113
170
...
...
515
932
1,447
1957*
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
...
1963
1964
4
1965
1966
---
1967
1968
Total...
* From 22nd July 1957 (date of first entry).
It will be seen from the above that after an almost unbroken series of drops in the number of adoptions registered each year since 1961, the 1968 figure suddenly rose to 170, exceeding the 1967 total by 77. This increase is believed to be due partly to the fact that since the 1967 disturbances more Chinese adopters have come to realize the importance of an adoption certificate for their children, whom they previously adopted without resorting to formal proceedings. During the year, 60% of the children adopted were over 5 years old and 81% over 2 years old. This appears to indicate that quite a large number of these children were already admitted into the families of their adopters before adoption. Of the 1,447 children adopted since the Adoption Ordinance came into force, 441 were under two years old, 118 two years old, and 209 three to four years old. Thus 768, or more than half of the total number of children adopted, were under five
57
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.