68
Table 30
Dialects Spoken in the Home (Southern District, Land Population). 1911
Enumeration district Punti Hakka Hoklo Others and unstated Total Cheung Chau (M) 1421 59 348 14.6% 621 (F) 1022 64.9% 216 13.7% 336 Total 2443 61.6% 564 14.2% Lantau (M) 2999 85.5% 466 13.3% 40 (F) 2695 84.2% 478 14.9% 29 Total 5694 Lamma (M) 168 84.9% 944 14.1% 69 (F) 489 98.8% 6 1.2% Total 657 79.5% 129 Total (M) 4588 73.7% 6229 (F) 4206 79.8% 700 13.3% 365 Total 8794 76.5% 1637 14.2% 1066 9.3% 3 11500 15.6% 40 150% 701 4.8% 826 5271Male:Female Ratios and Emigration
The village population tables in the 1911 Census which give the male and female population of each village in the New Territories are of value, not only in giving the basic population statistics of the area, but also because they enable us to identify villages with abnormal population characteristics.
It is not easy to extrapolate from the 1911 Census figures to detailed analysis of village society, because of the problem of the under-reporting of infant children and teenage girls in the Census. The problem is made worse by the 1921 Census having no tables parallel to those giving the village-by-village population statistics in the 1911 Census. While the under-reporting of youngsters in 1911 is clear, it is not, for instance, clear if the under-reporting was universal in incidence, or more typical of wealthier, Punti, villages, or, conversely, of poorer Hakka villages. Since more young girls went under-reported than young boys, the standard ratio as reported should have been about 51.5 males, 48.5 females. In fact, in many villages, more females than males are recorded. Given the general under-reporting of young girls, this feature can only be explained as the result of the temporary emigration out of the village (to the local market town, to Hong Kong, or abroad) of young adult