234
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 10TH MARCH, 1905.
The following Table gives the acreage and estimated total population of each Health District of the City of Victoria, and the number of persons per acre :
Persons per Acre on built-over
Health District.
Total Acreage.
Built-over Area (includ- Chinese ing Streets) Houses.
in Acres.
Non- Chinese Honses.
Non-Chinese Chinese Population Population. including
Troops.
Areas.
1
531
134
822
157
11,970
1,175
98
495
2
243
140
908
62
23,710
185
1,680 Troops
3
232
137
27
412
5.310
3,070
61
4
56
53
1,032
176
26,220
1,386
521
5
29
27
1,040
62
24,550
413
925
30
27
894
15
21.170
102
788
36
31
901
5
16,300
64
528
8
49
47
1,002
3
22,280
30
475
44
44
1,045
17
24,620
170
563
10
252
106
745
48
12,560
502
123
1,502
746
8,476
957
188,690
9,084
265
There are also some 2,000 Chinese servants, etc. resident at the Peak.
The area of No. 3 Health District has been enlarged to the extent of 68 acres so as to include the houses on the South side of Conduit Road and a few extra lots on the Peak Road which have now been built upon. In spite of this addition however there are 132 persons to the acre in the City as a whole, that is to say, including all the outlying vacant lands, the villages, the Race Course and the Cemeteries in No. 1 Health District, the Public Gardens and all the vacant military land in Nos. 2, 3 and 10 Health Districts, and all the unoccupied hillside below the upper limit of the City Health Districts (i.e., from 450 feet to 600 feet above high water mark).
District No. 5 shows an estimated population of more than 900 persons to the acre, which indicates excessive overcrowding, while the remaining Central Districts also show far too many persons to the acre. It was hoped that the electric tramway would do much to lessen the overcrowding in the more Central Districts of the City, by enabling the workers to live on the outskirts of the City and come in daily to their work, but unfortunately the result has at present been that more workers have crowded into the central districts and use the tramway to go out to their daily work. Thus if we compare the year 1902 (before the tramway was built) with the past year, we find that the number of persons per acre in the built-over areas of Districts 1, 2, 3, 9 and 10 has fallen from 157 persons in 1902 to 146 persons in 1904 while in the more Central Districts 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 the population has in- creased from 562 persons per acre in 1902 to 608 persons per acre in 1904. It must be remembered however that with such a changing population as we have in this Colony, it is extremely difficult to accurately gauge the increments of population over a period of years and these figures will no doubt need considerable modification in the light of the quinquennial census which will probably be taken in 1906.
The greater proximity to theatres and places of amusement is no doubt the attraction which has led to this migration of the working classes to the more Central Districts, but this will no doubt be met in due course by the establishment of similar places of amusement on the outskirts of the City when the owners of property realize that these are necessary to the letting of their premises.