ENG-1951 — Page 82

are provided either at his place of work or publicly. The Urban Council maintains 4 bath-houses in Hong Kong and 3 in Kowloon and New Kowloon. Each year, approximately 500,000 baths are provided free of charge for men, 250,000 for women and 250,000 for children. The 7 bath-houses now in existence were built when the urban population was one quarter its present figure, and long queues now form at the end of a day's work. It is proposed to spend $470,000 on public bath-houses and latrines over the next 4 years.

Markets

There are 17 retail markets on the Island of Hong Kong and 14 in Kowloon and New Kowloon. These markets contain a total of 1,749 stalls for the sale of fresh meat, fresh fish, poultry, fruit and vegetables. In addition there are nearly 350 food shops licensed for the sale of fresh food. Licensed hawkers may sell fruit and vegetables, but fresh meat, fresh fish and poultry must be sold either at a market stall or a licensed food shop. These restrictions are necessary to ensure that supplies are wholesome. The only fresh meat which may be sold in the urban area is that which has been slaughtered in one of the two government abattoirs and bears the official mark to show ante- and post-mortem examination. During the year these abattoirs handled 602,900 pigs, 6,250 cattle and 8,500 sheep or goats; during the same period the carcases of nearly 6,000 pigs, 110 cattle and sheep were destroyed as unfit for human consumption. The war years resulted in total destruction of 5 markets, only one of which has been rebuilt to date.

It is proposed to spend $1,000,000 in the next 3 years on market construction.

Veterinary

In addition to maintaining the two abattoirs, the Urban Council is responsible for the licensing of dogs and the control of animal diseases, particularly rabies. This work is supervised by a Senior Veterinary Officer.

During the year a determined attack was made on the rabies problem by seeking out and destroying unlicensed dogs, of which great numbers existed in the New Territories and in the rural fringe of Hong Kong and Kowloon. This campaign resulted in 14,055 dogs being licensed and inoculated and 588 unlicensed dogs destroyed. As a result no case of animal rabies was reported after 28th June 1950, the only case of human hydrophobia occurring in February 1951 in a man who had been bitten outside the Colony.

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