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persuaded there must be some error, as the continued building of Chinese Houses, crowded to excess and occupying greater raised units, afford substantial evidence of a great augmentation of the population and that augmentation during last year, and I feel justified in believing is not less than 10,000 Souls. I calculate the present Population of the Colony at 85,000. The fluctuating and ambulatory character of the population may excuse and account for inaccuracies in the Census.
8.
Nor are the Shipping returns unsatisfactory. They show in the last 5 years an average yearly increase of 487 vessels representing 251,350 Tons being 68 per cent. The increase in 1860 as compared with 1858 is 269,425 Tons, representing 60 per cent. The extension of our relations with all the countries of the furthest East, the circumstance that Hongkong is the place of arrival and departure of mail communications and the headquarters of all the great commercial establishments in China make it likely to preserve and perpetuate the rank it has now attained of being one of the most extensively visited seaports on the route to the East & the Cape of Good Hope. There are few Ports whose tonnage Returns equal or even approach those of Hongkong.