Sessional_Paper_1907 — Page 673

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The General Committee have held some 8 meetings in all at which were fully discussed the various questions raised from time to time as to the best manner of disposing of the Funds and as to the class of people who were to be assisted.

A Sub-Committee was appointed consisting of the Honourable the Registrar General, Mr. E. A. IRVING, The Harbour Master, Hon. Dr. Ho KAL, Hon. Mr. WEI YUK, Messrs. A. G. Woon, FUNG WA CHUN, LAU CHU PAK, TANG CHI NGONG, FRANCISCO TSE YAT, HO KOM TONG and Kwok YIU WUN.

The Committee are greatly indebited to these gentlemen for the very valuable services rendered and wish to record their appreciation of the work done. The Sub-Committee arranged that a special Investigating Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. FuNG WA CHUN should sit at the Tung Wa Hospital as a permanent committee, and this was done for many weeks running in order that any one making a claim on the fund could immediately be heard and as soon as posible be granted temporary assistance if found necessary, pending a final decision as to the particular claim presented.

The number of claims to be considered was very great and required very careful con- sideration in order to ensure that the fund was administered to the best advantage and that only those really deserving of assistance should receive it.

The first and most pressing matter demanding the consideration of the Committee was the relief of destitute widows and orphans, and the recovering and burying of the dead.

In all 205 women and children were assisted at a cost of $16,128.45. Most of these returning to their native villages. The above account included payments to the widows of four Europeans drowned, either in the form of a gratuity or assisted passage home.

The sum of $17,985.30 was expended by the Tung Wa Hospital in feeding destitutes and in recovering and burying the dead.

The main reason for raising the fund however was to enable the trade of the Colony to be carried on with as little loss and dislocation' as possible and to this end money was given or advanced, to owners of certain classes of boats to enable them to repair, rebuild or pur- chase boats as promptly as possible. As these boats are in most cases owned by the men who sail them their loss means in many cases absolute ruin, and after full discussion it was decided that advances up to about 1/3 of the value of the boat should be made, on the condition that the boats were ready for work by a certain date and that they should be registered in the Colony.

In all 1,601 cases were assisted of which one was a boat owned by an English pilot. The total expended being $198,002.00.

Attached is a table showing the number of boats of each class for which assistance was granted, this included cargo-boats, sampans and rowing-boats, fishing sampans, fishing-junks and miscellaneous junks.

With regard to the relief in the New Territories North of the Kowloon Hills, Messrs. MESSER and ÖRME kindly undertook this work and a sum of money was at once placed at their disposal to enable them to deal with cases demanding immediate relief. The total sum thus expended came to $12,554.00 made up as follows:-

Grants to 27 women for loss of relatives

$1,750

Small grants to 35 people (chiefly women)

449

Compensation for loss of crops and repairs to embankments Grants to Peng Chau Village for boats

9,015

1,000

Repairs to houses and free rice

310.