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out of a total population of 69,122 - 3.9%, while Southern District towns (including their floating populations) had at least 16,000 out of 21,355 - 74.9% - see Table 28). It is known that the Southern towns, for all their relatively small size, were socially dominated by groups of merchants from outside the marketing district. There can be no doubt that the recorded differences between the Northern and Southern District male land populations are due to the fact that the Southern figures record an essentially urban population, and the Northern figures an essentially agricultural one. Further, it is clear that the urban character of the small Southern District towns was different in quantity, but not in kind, from the City: both were marked by substantial numbers of immigrant prime-of-life males, temporarily resident without their families. Not surprisingly, the City shows this social pattern most clearly, but the basic pattern is common to the City, Kowloon, and the islands, and, as detailed study below will show, even to the small towns in the Northern District.
That the Southern District was dominated by immigrant workers only temporarily resident there, while the Northern District was mostly a settled, agricultural, society is also shown by the 1911 statistics for the place of birth of the recorded land population in the two Districts.
In Northern District in 1911 a mere 1,321 males (4% of the total male population), and 3,727 females (11% of the total female population) were born outside the New Territories. These 1,321 Northern District males born outside the New Territories fall into three groups. The first are the 243 born in San On District, the area immediately to the north of the New Territories. These people had formed part of the same basic society as the Northern District, and, although born outside the New Territories, should probably not be regarded as immigrants. Before 1899, indeed, the New Territories formed a single unit with the rest of San On from which the New Territories was cut. These men may have been accompanied by their families in some cases - 1,536 females born in San On were recorded, mostly brides of Northern District men, but possibly accompanying San On husbands in some cases. Villages in the north of the New Territories, close to the border, were particularly likely to have families whose ties lay equally on either side of the border.
The second group of Northern District males born outside the New Territories were the migrant stone cutters, salt-workers, and weavers from the north-east, a group of whom oral testimony has a good deal
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