reckoning, but obviously errors can easily be made in the process. There is, moreover, no doubt but that a great many people are ex- tremely hazy about their own and their relatives' ages. A further com- plicating factor is the tendency of relatives to exaggerate the age of the deceased, it being not uncommon in public announcements to add one month to the age for every year of the deceased's true age. The District Registrars, however, use their best endeavours to ascertain the correct age, and the figures given for the various groups are probably pretty fair approximations.
Accident and Suicide Deaths
111. Table XXVI is a new Table showing the numbers of deaths in 1962 by accident and suicide classified by causes, sex and age group. This reveals that 1,514 people died by accident or suicide as follows:
Accidents
Traffic accidents
Accidental poisoning
Accidental falls from heights
Other accidents
Suicides
...
314
21
185
632
1,152
By poisoning
By jumps from heights
By other means
98
84
180
362
1,514
Males appear to be much more accident prone than women, there being 715 male accidental deaths as compared with 437 female. Of the 362 suicides 224 were of males and 138 of females.
112. Full statistics of the causes of the deaths registered may be found in the Annual Departmental Report of the Director of Medical and Health Services.
Post Registration of Births
113. Until 1932 there were no facilities provided in the New Terri- tories for the registration of births, and anyone wishing to register a birth there had to register it in Hong Kong or Kowloon. The result was that until 1932 very few births in the villages were registered. In that year facilities were provided for registration at various places in the New Territories, but a great many villagers still neglected to register the births of their children. Under modern conditions a birth certificate
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