352
The daily scavenging of the Colony is carried out by gangs of coolies working under the immediate supervision of the Foremen of street cleansing, who act under the orders of the Inspectors of Nuisances; the refuse is removed daily from the Colony by boats and is burnt at a site upon the mainland some six or seven miles distant. The following return shows approximately the quantity of refuse removed from the Colony during the year 1896-
No. 1 Health District,
2
Nos. 3, 4 and 5 Health Districts,
6, 7 and 8
Peak Health District, Kowloon
"
Total,.
1,302 tons. 2,428 "> 11,392 10,101 357
>>
"
2,697
28,277 tons.
The water supply of the city of Victoria is derived from two large reservoirs, one at Taitam the present capacity of which is three hundred and fifty million gallons, but which will shortly be increased to four hundred million gallons, and the other at Pokfulam which has a capacity of sixty- eight million gallons, and these reservoirs, together with certain works which have already been commenced with a view to increasing the water supply of the city, are calculated to yield a minimum daily supply of 3,200,000 gallons. The average daily consumption of water per head in the city of Victoria with a constant service, is 15 gallons, and the estimated supply therefore is sufficient for a population of 214,000 persons, whereas the present population of the city and Harbour amounts to 180,000.
British Kowloon derives its water supply from three wells sunk in the valleys to the North of the village of Yaumati; the water is conveyed from these wells by cast iron pipes to a clear water tank at Yaumati from which it is pumped to a service reservoir at an elevation of some 200 ft. above sea level, and from this reservoir a system of distributing mains convey the water to the villages of Yaumati and Hunghom and to the mainly European district of Tsim Tsa Tsui.
During the past year waterworks have been in course of construction and are now almost complete, which will furnish an adequate supply of water to the villages of Shaukiwan and Aberdeen, while in the remaining portions of the Colony, such as the scattered villages of Stanley, Little Hongkong, Taitam Tuk on the island of Hongkong, and of Tai Kok Tsui, Mong Kok Tsui, Mati, etc. upon the Kowloon peninsula, the water supply is obtained from wells, which appear to meet the requirements of these districts for the present.
POPULATION.
The population of the Colony at the census taken in 1881 was 160,402 while in 1891 it had risen to 221,441; since then however great disturbances have taken place in regard to the distribution of the population, notably the extensive exodus of Chinese in 1894 owing to the outbreak of Bubonic Fever, and the subsequent demolition of the buildings upon that portion of the city known as Taipingshan, comprising 64 acres of densely packed "rookeries." In consequence of the occurrence of these exceptional circumstances, I urged upon the Board in February 1896 to represent to the Government the necessity for taking a census during the then current year, and in so doing I instanced the fact that the census of 1891 showed that the population of the Colony had been miscalculated to the extent of nearly 20,000 persons, even in the absence of any of those disturbing elements which had arisen during the past quinquennium; arrangements were finally made to take a census on January 20th, 1897, and the results of that enumeration fully corroborate my report, for they show that the civil population of the Colony has, as I had anticipated, been over-estimated to the extent of no less than 12,600 persons and that the death-rates therefore which have been periodically reported during the year were somewhat under-stated.
The actual figures of the 1897 census were as follows:-
'Civil population, Chinese,
f Land,
199,934
Civil population, Non-Chinese,
Harbour,........ Land, Mercantile Marine,..
32,731
7,542
450
Total Civil population,
240,657
Army, Navy,
2,850
2,268
Total population,.
245,775
The following is the estimated population of the Colony to the middle of 1896.