337
The following table gives the acreage and total population of each Health District of the City, and the number of persons per acre :-
Built-over
Health Total
Chinese Non-Chinese area District. Acreage. (including Houses. Houses.*
Chinese
Non-Chinese Population
Persons per
Population.
(including
acre on built-
over areas.
streets).
troops).
1
531
119
659
65
8,340
430
73.8
2
243
125
$27
37
22,260
[1,607 troops
| 1,185
}
200.4
G
164
124
31
349
4.300
1,930
50.2
56
49
911
173
23,870
1,960
527.1
10
667899
29
27
953
46
22,270
380
838.8
30
23
824
5
17,440
420
776.5
36
28
740
5.
16,490
170
595.0
49
38
734
5
19,240
150
510.2
44
43
1.035
20..
24,800.
170
580.7
252
99
455
47
7,550.
300
79.3
1,434
675
7,169
752.
166,560
8,682
259.6
* Exclusive of Barracks.
There are also some 1,700 Chinese servants, etc. resident at the Peak.
י
From this table it will be seen that Nos. 5 and 6 Health Districts which are situated in the centre of the city show acute surface crowding while Districts 7, 9, 4, and 8 are almost as densely crowded. Owing to the conformation of the island the only possible remedy for this acute congestion is the provision of more ready means of access to the outlying districts of the city, and it is to be hoped that the Government will see their way, at no distant date, to provide tramways to East Point and the Shaukiwan Road with nominal fares for workmen, thus offering an inducement to the Chinese to reside in these suburbs.
The density of population of the City of Victoria as a whole. that is to say, including all the outlying vacant lands and the villages in No. 1. Health District, the Public Gardens in No. 3 Health District, and all the unoccupied hill-side below the city limit of about 450 feet above high-water mark, is 122 persons per acre. In 1889 the average density of population in the administrative County of London was 49 persons per acre.
BIRTHS.
The births registered during the year were as follows:-
Chinese,.
Non-Chinese,
White, Coloured,
Males.
Females.
Total.
541
311
852
107
97
204
42
34
76
690
442
1,132
This is equal to a general birth-rate of 4.3 per 1,000 as compared with 4.7 per 1,000 during 1898 and 5 5 per 1,000 during 1897. The birth-rate among the Non-Chinese community alone was 17.7 per 1,000 as compared with 15.9 per 1,000 during 1898 and 17.7 per 1,000 during 1897, so that the deficiency in the birth-rate has been among the Chinese community only. The nationalities of the Non-Chinese parents were as follows:-British 113, Portuguese 81, Indian 64, German 10, Japanese 7, Malays and Filipinos 5. The remarkable preponderance of male births over female births among the Non-Chinese population has not been so pronounced during the past year as in 1898, but it still stands at 113 to 100, as compared with 136 to 100 during 1898 (128 to 100 among the white population only) and 104 only to 100 in Great Britain.
The number of Chinese births registered does not, however, give an accurate record of the num- ber of births which have occurred in the Colony, for many of the infants that die during the first month or so of life remain unregistered, although their deaths must be registered to obtain the neces- sary burial orders. It has been customary therefore to add to the registered births the number of infants of one month old and under that die in the various Convents or are found by the Police in the streets or in the Harbour. This number during 1899 was 251 males and 398 females, making a total