*186
BURIALS.
Of the 4,334 deaths occurring among the Chinese in Victoria 4,037 were buried in the Colony, 217 were sent out of the Colony, and 80 reported as being in the Mortuary awaiting interment or removal.
EXHUMATIONS.
With the concurrence of the Sanitary Superintendent 204 Exhumation Permits were granted during the year for removal of remains into China or re-burial in the Colony.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
Table V C shows the mortality at various ages from which it will be seen that the number of deaths under one year amounted to 25 and 34.69 per cent. of the non-Chinese and Chinese deaths respectively. The percentages in the previous year were 11.95 and 32.13.
HOSPITAL DEATHS.
Out of the total of 5,422 the deaths in hospitals in the Colony were as follows:-
Tung Wa Hospital,
Government Civil Hospital,
Alice Memorial Hospital,
Royal Naval Hospital,
Military Hospital,
Peak Hospital,
Hospital Hulk Hygeia,
Nethersole Hospital,
Total,
.1,231
59
29
4
32
2
7
11
.1,375
I understand, however, that some deaths at the Peak Hospital were not registered.
REMARKS ON THE VITAL STATISTICS OF THE CHINESE OF VICTORIA.
The number of births in Victoria, obtained by deducting those which take place in Wong- nai-chung and at Causeway Bay and among the boat population, is 1,081, and of deaths, 4,135.
The number of deaths of children under one year, 1,546, exceeds the mean number of births in 1892-93 by 433. Probably the births of none of the children under one month old who died in the Convents and the Tung Wa Hospital were registered, nor the births of those whose bodies were found exposed shortly after death. Adding these the total number of births may be taken as 2,126.
Again the number of families and therefore the number of married women in Victoria is 15,000. Deducting 3,900 as the number of women above 50, and taking the annual rate of births as 22 per 100 married women of child-bearing age, we arrive at a total of 2,442 as the probable number of births. The real number is no doubt greater than this and the number of unregistered births may be taken to be at least 1,500. Even assuming the number of births per annum to be 3,000 the number of deaths of children under one year to 1,000 births is over 500, compared with 245 in Leicester in the year 1875, an exceptionally high rate.
Of the 1,546 deaths under one year 1,212 took place in the Italian and French Convents and 20 in the Tung Wa Hospital. The bodies of 128 children under one year of age were found exposed in the streets and orders for their burial given by the Police Magistrate. 46 bodies of children under 5 years of age were found on the Praya or on the foreshore, and 15 in Poyan Street alone.
The number of deaths of male infants under 1 year of age to 100 females is 71.37; the number of registered births of males to 100 females in the last two years is 130.27. Neither rate is natural, but it seems as if less care was paid to female children than to male.
The annual rate of mortality at different ages is given in Table XII B. It compares favourably with that for males in London for the years 1861-70. The census returns are unfortunately not very full and it has been found impossible to separate the sexes at different ages, but as the number of deaths of males per mille is 23.14 and that of females 41.20, the return would be still more favourable to Hongkong in a comparison with the death-rate in London.
The death-rate per mille for the whole population is 28.50. The number of persons who died under 5 years is 2,037 or nearly exactly half the number of total deaths. Of the 1,231 deaths in the Tung Wa Hospital (8 out of the 1,239, as stated in Table VII having occurred before admission) 1,002 are those of males, of whom 711 are entered as being labourers, 155 as servants. The number of persons who died between the ages of 21 and 60 is 779, as compared with 787, the number of those of the same age who died outside the hospital. The mortality per cent. of the cases treated was 41.46 or more than five times that for hospitals of the same size at home. The rate is, however, less than in the previous year.
This Ordinance, 7 of 1872, which is copied almost exactly from the law in force in that year at home has not received any of the emendations which were made in the English Act of 1874, but the matter is at present under consideration. The main defect, in my opinion, is that the registration of deaths even by nearest relatives is not compulsory, and I am of the opinion that in a community like Hongkong where so many persons are without relatives the occupiers of houses in which deaths take place should be compelled to give information. I do not think that many deaths among the Chinese