from the renited Kingdom
the male 'adult British subjects, there has been a
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slight decrease from 342 to 336, there has been an increase in the number of women and of boys and girls. So, too, with the Portuguese; theris a falling off from 418 adult males in 1876 to 384 at present, but an increase in the women and children. So, too, with the Germans; there is a falling off in the adult German population, and in the American population, and in the French population, but in each case there is an increase in the number of women and children. This fact, I say, is of interest, because the tropical Colony where European children flourish cannot be very unhealthy. The vitality of a foreign child is a delicate test of climate, and I believe we can point to this particular item in the census returns as affording some indication that Hongkong is growing more healthy. And now, proceeding to the question of the 20,000 additional Chinese, we have to consider this-Has the increase in the various mercantile occupations of the Chinese been such as to justify the remarkable transfer of landed property I have referred to? The census returns furnish us with an opportunity of testing how far in the harbour of Victoria itself the means we have of commercial movement-that is, the transference of goods from steamer to steamer, from steamer to shore, and vice versa-how far that has been facilitated since the year 1876. From the returns, I find that that movement is conducted by steam launches, cargo boats, and sampaus. The steam launches have increased from 8 in 1876 to 37 in 1881, the cargo boats from 494 to 656, and the sampans from 1,357 to 2,088. So far for the machinery that we have in our harbour for conducting the commercial movement of the Colony; it has substantially increased. The returns I am laying before you are identical in form with the returns prepared in the time of Sir ARTHUR Kennedy, and probably his predecessors, and amongst these returns there is one which answers the question I have been asking, and that is a return of the occupations of the Chinese adult male inhabitants of the Colony. On analysing that return, I find that the following are the changes that have taken place since the last census with respect to Chinese merchants and other Chinese directly concerned in the trade and commerce of the Colony.
The Chinese Trading hongs,-that is, the Nam-pak hongs and other wealthy merchants who now send the manufactures of England into China,-have increased from 215 to 395. Chinese traders have increased from 287 to 2,377; Chinese brokers, from 142 to 455. Taking the Chinese engaged in dealing in money;-the Shroff's have increased from 40 to 208; the Teachers of shroffing have increased from 9 to 14; the Bullion dealers, who do not appear in any former census, are now returned at 34; the Money Changers, 111 in 1876, still remain at 111, but in 1876 there were no Chinese Bankers returned, and now we have in this census 55 Chinese Bankers. The piece-goods dealers have increased from 78 in 1876 to 109, and cotton and yarn dealers from 38 to 58. This is of interest, not merely to Manchester, Bradford or Leeds: these Chinese merchants of Hongkong are now facilitating an Indian trade with China, healthier, and with a safer future, than the trade in that drug which a few years ago was the only considerable commercial link between British India and China. Since 1877, the quantity of Bombay yarn received in Hongkong has steadily risen from 21,000 bales to 61,000. The increase in the value of this trade from $1,706,913 in 1877 to $5,251,246 in 1880, has been coincident with an increase in our imports of raw cotton from Bengal and Rangoon from 33,000 bales in 1877 to 86,000 in 1880. Our opium trade shows no such tendency to increase. In 1880, we imported 87,747 chests, as against 88,428 in 1877. Mr. F. D. SASSOON tells me that the value of our total trade with India last year was $67,772,937, the value of the opium being $58,248,235. Though the trade in other goods than opium is but one-sixth of the total Indian trade, yet it is so rapidly developing, that I look forward with confidence to the time when it will outstrip, and, perhaps, enable the Indian Government to curtail, the trade in opium. Tea merchants have increased from 26 to 51, rice dealers from 95 to 128, coal dealers from 16 to 20, firearms dealers from 15 to 20, timber dealers from 15 to 107, drapers from 101 to 156, and foreign goods dealers from 167 to 191. Compradores have increased from 77 to 95, ship compradores from 67 to 113, and ship charterers from 7 to 41. Looking to the increase I have pointed out in the ordinary machinery for commercial movement in the harbour, to this remarkable increase of the mercantile community, and to the well-known magnitude of the mercantile transactions of our Chinese merchants, it seems clear that this large expenditure, since January 1880, of $1,710,000 by Chinese for commercial property was a necessary expenditure.
There is another question that we may fairly ask. It has often been said, and there is hardly a directory or guide relating to Hongkong in which you do not see it recorded, that Hongkong has no local manufactures whatever. Is that true? Well, on turning to the census returns, I find many local Chinese manufactures in this Colony. Bamboo workers have increased from 93 in 1876 to 121 in 1881; Boat builders, from 48 to 110; Carvers, from 59 to 70; Cigar makers, from 21 to 31; Engi-
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neers from 10 to 121, and Gold beaters from 41 to 60.
Glass manufacturers appear for the first time; theree now 16 in the Colony, and I believe at this moment the glass manufactory to the west of the town is capable of turning out such glass as some of the European storekeepers here are themselves prepared to sell; and when a service of glass may get injured, they can now send to our local glass manufactory and get tumblers to replace those broken in the set. I find image makers have increased from 10 to 15, lantern makers from 50 to 63, leather box makers from 39 to 53, lemonade and soda-water makers from 28 to 30. Watch manufacturers did not appear in the former census; they now number 13. Oar makers have increased from 30 to 43. Opium dealers have declined from 108 to 103, but that is not coincident with any decline in the revenue the Government of Hongkong derives from the monopoly of prepared opium, which was $132,000 in 1877, but was sold in 1879 for $205,000 a year. Paper box makers have declined from 21 to 10, and rattan workers from 596 to 448. Of rifle makers we have five in the Colony. Sail and rope makers have increased from 100 to 141, and sandal-wood dealers and workers, from 74 to 76. Workers in sapanwood have declined from 96 to 20, and though there is apparently a decline in the number of sauce manufacturers from 49 to 41, there has been an increase in the quantity of sauce manufactured. I may mention, that a short time before the late Mr. KWOK ACHEONG died, I went with him and two or three other Chinese gentlemen interested in the factory at Yau-má-ti, to examine the factory, which was in a more or less rude state, thebuildings not being then completed. I was glad to see what they were doing. In addition to making soy, they made ketchup for the European market, and they had also a manufactory for preserving fruits. Now, the ketchup is sent in hundreds of barrels every year direct from Hongkong to a well-known house in London,that well-known provision merchant whose good things most of us have, from time to time, enjoyed. He sends out thousands of little bottles of his ketchup to Chinese as well as to European storekeepers here, so that, in short, the ketchup we consume as English ketchup is manufactured by Chinese in Hongkong, sent to England, and this famous provision merchant in England returns it to us for retail. I am bound to add, that the latest advices are that the peculiar article which is produced by the Chinese manufacturer at Yau-má-ti was regarded at the recent sales in London as the best in the market, and our little local manufactory is very successful. I find immediately following this we come to the soap manufacturers; they do not appear in the last census, and they are now only 7 in number. There also appears, for the first time, one spectacle-maker, We have Chinese sugar refiners; they have declined from 25 to 15, and tanners from 7 to 1. Tobacco manufacturers have increased froin 44 to 96. Tooth-powder makers appear also for the first time; they number 57. Umbrella-makers have increased from 97 to 169, vermilion manufacturers and dealers from 111 to 123, and Weavers, who appear for the first time in our census, number 6. It is, therefore, clear that we have in this Colony numerous local manufactures which have every prospect of extending.
But apart from the question of such manufactures, there are in this Colony, as you all know, various industries employing Chinese artizans. Carpenters have increased from 2,510 to 2,923, blacksmiths from 690 to 708, pewter-smiths from 60 to 173, tinsmiths from 88 to 172, and braziers from 488 to 864. Masons show a falling off from 845 to 542. Rice-pounders have increased from 954 to 1,083, and in stone-cutters there is a large increase,-from 449 to 1,439. The number of tailors now in the Colony, who work with sewing machines mostly, amounts to 1,857. It is an interesting fact, that for these tailors drill is imported into the Colony from England; they make it up with their sewing machines, and the made clothes are then exported to New Zealand and Australia. In that way Chinese cheap labour, even without leaving the atmosphere of China, is, to a certain extent, successfully competing with Australian and English manufacturers of clothes.
There are certain special occupations of the Chinese which are worth noting, as they indicate the prosperity of the natives. We have the birds' nest sellers, who have increased from 12 to 35, the sharks' fins dealers, from 9 to 15, beancurd sellers, from 93 to 107, jadestone dealers, from 8 to 18; but cinnamon dealers have fallen from 8 to 7. Sessamun oil dealers appear for the first time, and number 5, and ginseng dealers also appear for the first time and are 4 in number. Joss-paper sellers have increased from 30 to 47, joss-house keepers, from 17 to 41, and chair coolies, from 859 to 980.
In addition to those who are concerned in our commerce and trades, there is a certain amount of professional life amongst the Chinese, as shown by the census returns. We had in 1876, 198 Chinese doctors; now we have 333. Well, the question has often been asked, whether Chinese doctors do much good, but I think we may, perhaps, rely upon the good sense of those who employ them and have confidence in their empirical knowledge and skill. But even the European community and the
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