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the value of land has in some cases risen three and even four-fold in the comparatively short period mentioned while rents have increased to such a degree as to cause consider- -able hardship, to the European, Portuguese and Chinese members of the Community who receive fixed salaries. The scheme for allowances in certain cases, and more recently the grant of a ten per centum bonus on salaries throughout the Government Service has given much needed relief to public servante in connection with high rents, while many mercantile firms have taken similar action in the case of
their employees.
3.
Such measures, however, do not touch the problem of overcrowding among the mass of the population. The Census of 1911 showed that the population of the City of Victoria was 225,521. A few months later came the revolution in China, and from time to time since various up- -heavals in the Province of Kuangtung have led to large numbers of refugees entering the Colony. There is good reason to suppose that only a portion of these people return to Kuangtung and that the population of the Colony has increased far beyond the normal percentage allowed for in the Annual statistics. It has been asserted more than once during the past year that the population of the Colony and New Territories is in the neighbourhood of a million, but that I am convinced is a great exaggeration. Recent returns of water consumption in the City of Victoria show an average of 24 gallons a head on a population of nearly 250,000. The normal consumption for some years past has steadily risen from 18 to 24 gallons a head and I cannot help thinking that the increase is really due to the fact that instead of a population of 250,000 at the present time, the number is probably nearer 350,000.
4.