HONGKONG
975
Chinese community the death rate was 23.3 per 1,000, compared with 24.5 in 1918 and 23.7 in 1917. The birth-rate among the non-Chinese community was 20.6 in 1919. The birth statistics for the Chinese community do not give an accurate record of the number of births.
our successive years of comparative drought, 1898-1901, led to the assumption that the rainfall of Hongkong was decreasing. But such is not the case; the mean annual rainfall for the period 1902-11 was 84.21 inches against 68.29 inches for the period 1895- 1901. Until 1918 the rainfall was never so heavy as in the period 1888-1894, when the mean annual fall was 101.08 inches. In 1914 it
In 1914 it was 100.21 inches, in 1915 it was 76.025 inches, in 1916 79.85 inches, in 1917 81.48 inches, in 1918 101.605 inches and in 1919 76.14 inches.
TRADE
The value of the trade of Hongkong was estimated for many years at about £50,000,000 per annum, but the returns compiled by the Statistical Branch of the Imports and Exports Department, established during the war, showed a total for 1919 of £194,594,642, viz., exports £103,942,934 and imports £90,651,708.
United Kingdom...
British Colonies, Dominions and Protectorates Foreign Countries
...
...
Imports £5,129,784
14,616,226 70,905,698
Exports £2,698,813
16,294,332
84,949,789
The imports from the U.S.A. were valued at £17,759,011 and the exports to that country at £4,876,946.
The total of the Shipping entering and clearing at ports in the Colony during the year 1919 amounted to 649,168 vessels of 35,615,169 tons, which, compared with the figures for 1918, shows an increase of 69,627 vessels and 6,096,980 tons. Of the foregoing, 41,985 vessels of 21,072,120 tons were engaged in foreign trade, as compared with 43,436 vessels of 16,955,332 tons in 1918. A comparison between the years 1918 and 1919 is given in the following table:-
1918.
No. Tonnage.
3,627,576
6,117 893
3,444,445
Class of Vessels. British Ocean-going.. 2,444 4,234 British RiverSteamers 5,807
1919.
Increase.
Decrease. No. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. 3,865 6,842,024 1,421 3,214,448
5,274 7,625,823 1,040 1,507.930 5,502 3,253,781
612,314 1,599 591,679
Foreign
Foreign
1,510
""
...
Steamships under
60 tons (Foreign
6,002 180,738 5,035 161,689
Trade)......
89
305 190,664
20,638
967
19,049
Junks, Foreign Trade 23,439 2,972,366 20,710 2,597,133
www.
2,729 375,233
Total, Foreign Trade.. 43,436 16,955,332 41,985 21,072,129 2,550 4,722,378 4,001 605,584
Steam launches
plying in Waters 499,102 10,734,658 586,188 13,366,602 87,086 2,631,944 of Colony
Junks, Local Trade...*37,003 *1,828,199 +20,995 +1,176,438
Grand Total
16,008 651,761
.579,541 29,518,189 649,168 35,615,169 89,636 7,354,322 20,009 1,257,345
Net Increase.....
.69,627 6,096,977
The actual number of individual ocean-going vessels of European construction during 1919 was 957, of which 301 were British and 656 foreign. In 1918 the number was 675, of which 162 were British and 513 foreign. These 957 ships measured 2,230,105 tons. They entered 4,575 times and gave a collective tonnage of 7,242,689. Thus 282 more ships entered 1,232 more times, and gave a collective tonnage greater by 2,364,580 tons, an average of 1,919'3 tons per entry.
A Parliamentary paper issued in August, 1905, showed Hongkong to be, in respect of tonnage, the largest shipping port in the world. The trade chiefly consists of cotton, sugar, salt, flour, oil, cotton and woollen goods, cotton yarn, opium, matches, metals, earthenware, amber, ivory, sandalwood, betel, vegetables, granite, etc. There is an
* Including 11,686 Conservancy and Dust Boats of 638,884 tons.
+
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11,486
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758,621
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