812
12
It is significant that while the total increase in the population of the Colony during the five years between 1897 and 1901 was 35,095, the increase during the same period in the population of British Kowloon (which used to be a garden suburb of Victoria) was no less than 16,534, or nearly half the increase for the whole Colony.
There were 1,088 births during the year, and of that number 848 were Chinese, This is equal to a general birth-rate of 3.6 per 1,000, as compared with 3.3 in 1900, 4.3 in 1899, and 4.7 in 1898. Owing, however, to the large number of Chinese infants who die unregistered, it is estimated that a more correct birth-rate for the past year would be 4.7 per 1,000.
(b) PUBLIC HEALTH.
As compared with the 1,088 births mentioned above, there were 7,082 deaths in 1901. This gives a death-rate of 23.5 per 1,000, as compared with 23.9 in 1900, 23.8 in 1899, and an average of 22.5 per 1,000 during the past five years. The deaths included 1,562 from bubonic plague, which again visited the Colony and ran its usual course. Excluding the deaths from plague, the death-rate for 1901 would have been 19.03 per 1,000. Among the non-Chinese the deaths numbered 412, of which 302 were among the Civil population, 96 among the Army, and 14 among the Navy. This is equal to a death-rate of 20.5 per 1,000. The British deaths among the non-Chinese numbered 116; the rest were chiefly Indians, Malays and Portuguese.
.
One thousand six hundred and fifty-one (1,651) cases of Plague were reported during the year, of which all but 89 were fatal. The disease showed an increased tendency to attack Europeans. The chief causes of death among the non-Chinese resident civil community were plague, phthisis, malaria and pneumonia. There were more cases of small-pox than usual, and some cholera cases were imported.
It is hoped that when the much-needed improvement in the sanitary condition of the City is effected, there will be a large decrease not only in the deaths resulting from bubonic plague but also in those from phthisis and other chest diseases, which are more or less directly attributable to overcrowded and insanitary dwellings.
It is to be regretted that the experiment of once more sending troops to reside in the building which was originally destined to be a Military Sanitarium, has not proved successful, and the hopes expressed in paragraph VIII (6) 8 of my Report on the Blue Book for last year have not been realised. After a brief period of freedom from malaria, the troops stationed there began to be attacked in consider- able numbers and had to be wholly withdrawn from the building, which now stands empty.
The treatment with larvicides of the breeding places of the Anopheles mosquito- is being actively continued.
(c.)-SANITATION.
In spite of the efforts of the Government, the Sanitary Board and the Legis- lature, during the past few years, the sanitary state of the Colony still leaves much to be desired. The City of Victoria retains its unenvied pre-eminence in the matter of surface crowding, and in spite of the enforcement of the provisions of the Insani- tary Properties Ordinance of 1899, the condition of the vast majority of the Chinese dwelling houses is far from meeting the requirements of modern sanitary science. As there seemed to be no prospect of amelioration without the adoption of more radical measures than had hitherto been attempted, and as the Community showed by a Peti-