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MARKETS AND SLAUGHTER HOUSES.
The new Slaughter House at Kennedy Town will be ready for occupation shortly.
The new Central Market will also be completed during the current year, and will form a much needed addition to the means of regulating the supply, and controlling the sale of food to the English and Chinese population.
year
There has been no outbreak of disease, contagious or otherwise, amongst cattle during the past which calls for comment.
46 sheds capable of housing 1,046 head of cattle; 4 sheds capable of housing 142 head of goats; and 333 pens capable of housing 2,099 head of swine, were licensed during the year. So far as it is known all the cows and goats in the Colony are now kept in licensed premises, with the exception of a few head of cattle in outlying districts kept for agricultural purposes, and for which no provision for housing is made. A certain number of swine pens are still unlicensed in the villages but the law is being steadily enforced in respect of the construction of pens, and it is hoped that in the near future they will all be of a standard to entitle them to a license.
A considerable number of sheep and swine, imported for slaughter, are still kept in unlicensed premises in the Sai-ying-pun district, pending the construction of the public depôts at Kennedy Town, which will be ready for occupation in about six months' time.
MORTALITY STATISTICS.
The attached tabular statements (B) show :—
(a) The death rate in 1893 for
1. The British and Foreign community.
2. The Chinese community on land in each registration district.
3. The Chinese community afloat in each registration district.
4. The Chinese community on land in the Colony.
5. The Chinese community afloat in the Colony.
6. The total Chinese community in the Colony.
7. The British, Foreign, and Chinese community combined-army and
navy excluded.
(b) The number of deaths occurring under each of the seven groups into which it has been deemed expedient (in view of the system of death registration in vogue) to classify in the summary the causes of death.
(c) The total number of deaths occurring among the British and Foreign community in each month of each year, 1889 to 1893, both inclusive, under six disease groups. These groups are the same as in (b) only 6 and 7 groups are amalgamated.
(d) The same as (c) but for the Chinese community.
(e) The total number of deaths occurring in the Colony-those in the army
and navy
excluded
-in each month for the past six years, together with the death-rate for the estimated population.
The attached diagrams show:-
(a) The number of deaths which occurred each inonth under each of the groups referred to
above.
(b) The mean temperature for each month.
(c) The rainfall for each month.
) The number of deaths registered during each month of the years 1889 to 1893, as also
the mean temperature and rainfall.
It will be noticed that the death-rate has gone up from 20.7 in 1892 to 22.7 in 1893, and that the number of deaths registered is considerably in excess of those registered in 1892. The principal increase appears under the heads Infantile Convulsive Diseases (270), Bowel Complaints (124), and Other Causes (169).
The decrease in the number of deaths recorded as occurring from fevers, which was referred to in the Superintendent's report of last year, has been equally noticeable in 1893. As the figures and conditions are very similar it may be of interest to repeat here what was stated by the Sanitary Superintendent upon the subject a year ago:---
"The decrease in the number of deaths recorded as occurring from fevers is deserving of special attention chiefly because of the widely believed theory that soil disturbance, even when the soil is practically of a purely mineral character, is the, or rather one of the, principal factors in the causation of malarial fevers. During the year under review there has been a very great deal of soil disturbance, more especially in Kau-lung yet the deaths recorded from fevers have been less than usual. It is no doubt true that the number of deaths caused by any particular disease is not a thoroughly reliable index to the number of cases of sickness that may have occurred, but it is an index and the only one which we at present possess so far as the Chinese community is concerned. It is perfectly clear that some important factor in the causation of malignant malarial fevers has been during 1892 (and 1893) less powerful than usual, and it is quite evident that that factor is not that a smaller quantity than usual of soil disturbance has taken place."
The death-rates for the year have been calculated from the figures obtained by the census taken in May, 1891, plus an estimated increase to the population since then. This estimated increase to the population is based on the average annual increase which has been shown to have taken place between the years 1857 and 1891. In considering the death-rate the nature of the population should be remembered―i.e. it is not a normal population, but a population in which the male sex in the prime of life largely predominates.