165
shows a reduction in the population of Victoria of 1,767
which is sufficiently explained by new regulations under
Ordinance 1 of 1903 for the prevention of overcrowding, by
resumptions and demolition of insanitary property and by
stagnation in trade, though this latter reason is not adduced
in the report under review. An encouraging feature of
the Census is that it shows an increase in the number of
Chinese women in the population of Victoria, the proportion
of females to males being 38.6 per centum against 35.3 per
centum in 1901.
4.
The statistics of births among
the Chinese population are untrustworthy because the
majority of such births are not registered in spite of
every effort to induce registration.
The number of such registrations
was 1,028 in 1906 against 988 in 1905 and 942 in 1904.
These figures show a slight improvement.
The corrected general birth rate
was 5.82 per mille; the birth rate among the non-Chinese
community was 14.06 per mille, and the corrected birth
rate in the Chinese community was 5.26 per mille.
5.
The general death rate was 25.06 per