(2)
4. The Census of the City of Victoria was, as on previous occasions, taken by a staff of specially engaged Chinese enumerators under the direction of the Census Officer.
The Police were in charge of the Census of the Non-Chinese quarters of the City, the Chinese float- ing population, the out-lying villages and the Kowloon Peninsula.
5. In view of the experience gained in 1897, I decided to adopt the "double block" system, under which each Census block is worked by two enumerators, instead of one, the size of the blocks being correspondingly increased. The two enumerators work together, and not singly. This enables a great deal of time to be saved, as one man can interrogate the inmates of a house, while his companion takes down in writing the information thus obtained. It is also more acceptable to the enumerators, who, in the course of their work, have frequently to intrude on private families, and saves them a certain amount of embarrassment.
6. Those portions of the City of Victoria, which were told off to the Registrar General, were divided into 53 double sections, which were designed to contain as nearly as possible about 3,000 persons each. It was a matter of some difficulty mapping out these blocks, as the 1897 ones were more or less useless for the purposes of comparison, but on the whole they turned out very fairly correct.
I personally accompanied the Head District Watchman round each block, and ascertained the boun- daries, which practically precluded the enumerators from making the mistake of overlapping a neigh- bouring section, when distributing the schedules.
7. Out of 107 Chinese enumerators, 5 were members of the District Watchinen Force, the remain- der being engaged by the Census Officer. A good many of them had had previous experience of the
work in the Census of 1897.
Each pair of enumerators was accompanied by a District Watchman in uniform, whose duty it was to see that no houses were overlooked. Nearly the whole of the Force was thus employed. The distri- bution of schedules commenced on the 17th January, and, with a few exceptions, they were nearly all collected again before the 28th. Considering the very large number which the enumerators had to fill up themselves, this cannot but be considered a most creditable performance. The first section to be completed was one in Chungwan, numbered by YUNG KWONG-IP (who distinguished himself in the same manner in 1897) and NG PING-PO, who handed in their returus at 10 a.m. on the 23rd January. It is only fair to add that this section happened to be an usually small one, and that several other enumera- tors also completed their task later on on the same day.
The two Kennedy Town sections, which included over 10,000 persons, were enumerated by Head District Watchman LEUNG CHAU and 4 Watchmen, who performed this difficult task most satisfactorily. Their work compared most favourably with that of the rest of the District Watchmen Force, which somewhat disappointed me. I had considerably under-estimated the number of inhabitants in this locality, and it will probably be necessary to divide it into four double sections next Census.
8. Two European Police Sergeants, five Lance-Sergeants, four European Police Constables, eleven Chinese Constables and one Sergeant Interpreter were employed in taking the Census of those portions of the city, which were not done by the Registrar General's Department.
The work was done best in the Western district of Victoria, which was in charge of Sergeant SIM and Lance-Sergeant RITCHIE.
The work. however, of all the Police was admirable, and it is difficult for me to distinguish between individuals. They made their own arrangements as to dividing the portions of the city allotted to them inte Census blocks, each of the latter being worked by one European accompanied by a Chinese Police Constable. They commenced distributing the schedules on the 16th January, and most of them had been returned to the Census Office before the 28th, or within a week from the date of taking the Census.
9. The number of persons in Victoria enumerated by the Police was 6,523 Non-Chinese and 19,668 Chinese. The av rage number of persons dealt with by each pair of Police Officers was 593 Non-Chinese and 1,788 Chinese. The work was done more quickly than in 1897, but in the next Census, 3 additional Europeans and 3 Chinese will probably have to be employed.
10. The Census of the outlying villages was taken by the respective Police Officers in Charge. 11. Special preparations were made in the Kowloon Peninsula, in view of the rapid growth of that part of the Colony, and of the inadequacy of the enumerating staff in 1897.
Six European Police, three Indians, and ten Chinese were employed, in addition to whom thirteen civilian eumeratins were engaged. The Peninsula was divided into 15 sections, with two enumerators to each. The hired enumerators were in every case accompanied either by an Indian or a Chinese Pulice Constable.
The work of distributing the schedules was commenced on the 17th January at 7 a.m., and by dint of working eight hours a day, the enumerators succeeded in finishing that task and re-visiting all parts of their districts before the night of the 20th January. The schedules were all collected again by 9 a.m.