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The Balance to the credit of the Society on the 31st December, was $15,372.74, com- pared with $15,809.25 at the close of 1904. Of this balance, $15,000 is a portion of the endowment fund and not to be trenched upon. This sum is now placed on fixed deposit with five Chinese banks. The increase in the expenditure is due to an increase in the wages of the staff and to an expenditure of $900 on repairs, alterations and painting. The rooms on the ground floor of the women's quarters have always been damp, and an examination by the Sanitary Department showed that concreting the ground surface was required. This has been done and the windows opening on the street at the back have been enlarged.
The subscriptions collected during the year amounted to $7,765, as against $8,175 in 1904 and $5,715 in 1903. The Committee in charge of the various Religious Ceremonies held on Feast Days at the Man Mo Temple subscribed $1,890 and the lessees of the Chinese Theatres $1,500. The Society has to thank His Excellency the Governor for a subscription of one hundred dollars, and the pawn-shop guild for doubling their subscription. The Opium Farmer also claims our thanks for an annual subscription.
The annual sum spent by the Managing Committee was $9,300.27, compared with $8,432.19 in the preceding year. Messrs. Lo MUI SHEK and FOR SHIU CHI kindly under- took the task of auditing the accounts
The Visiting Justices du ing the year have been Mr. DUNCAN CLARK and Mr. CHAU SII: KI.
Monthly Meetings of the Permanent Board of Direction have been held, and have been attended by two or more Members of the Annual Committee.
A return is attached showing the accommodation of the Home, the number of the staff. the number of women and children admitted during the year, and the disposition made in each case.
Four hundred and Seven (407) women, 102 girls and 21 small boys, making a total of 530 individuals, were admitted into the Home.
The women's quarters have been visited on Fridays by Mrs. WELLS, and on Saturdays by Mrs FONG and some friends, and the Board of Directors beg to thank these ladies for their help and sympathy. The services of a suitable Chinese teacher have been procured, and the Inspector of Schools has undertaken to give advice as to the books and the course of study most suitable.
The Home has fortunately been comparatively free from beri-beri, and any cases which do not show themselves to be amenable to treatment are sent to the Fong Pin Yi Sho Hospital in Canton.
The Society is deeply indebted to the Tung Wah Hospital for placing the whole of the building and grounds now used as a dispensary at their disposal. This will give the inmates the use of a piece of ground shaded by trees and will render it possible to make the separa- tion of the various classes complete. The Hospital has leased the building and grounds to the Society for a nominal rent of one dollar a year. As soon as arrangements have been made for the accommodation of the out-patients elsewhere the Society will move into occupa-
tion.
New regulations for the control of the women and girls sent to a Place of Refuge by the Registrar General were made by the Governor-in-Council on the 11th September, 1905, (see Government Notification No. 578 of 1905).
His Excellency the Governor visited the Po Leung Kuk on the 24th November, and the Board of Direction has now under consideration the best means of carrying out the suggestions made by His Excellency to render the life of the inmates as bright and happy as is possible under the circumstances.
The Inspecting, Medical Officer's Report for the year is attachedi
28th February, 1906.
A. W. BREWIN, President. Ho KAI, Vice-President.
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