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them to one or other of the Convents and arrange for the burial of dead infants. Free advice and medicine are given and patients are attended at their houses. There are eight Dispensaries in existence. The total cost of maintenance was $40,185.59 for the year 1918. The Government makes an annual grant of $2,000, and the rest of the cost is defrayed by voluntary subscription. The Dispensaries are conducted by committees under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs.
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of crime to population does not convey an accurate idea of the comparative criminality of the residents of the Colony, The Gaol has accommodation for 707 prisoners.
The prison discipline was satisfactory, the average of punish- ments per prisoner being 1:05 as compared with 1-36 in 1917 and 1:34 in 1916.
Long sentence prisoners serving two years and upwards are taught useful trades, including printing, book-binding, tin-smithing, mat-making, tailoring, carpentering, etc. The profit on the work done was $69,202 as against $67,333 in 1917. A sum of $3,954 was received and credited to Governinent for non-Government work against $3,601 in 1917.
}
VIII. CRIMINAL AND POLICE.
+
The total of all cases reported to the Police was 8,449, being decrease of 1,059 or 11'14 per cent, as compared with 1917. There was in 1918 an increase in serious offences of 153 or 447 per cent. as compared with the previous year. The number of serious offences reported was 253 over the average of the quinquennial period com- mencing with the year 1914. The number of minor offences reported shows a decrease of 1,212 as compared with 1917 and was 1,315 below the average of the quinquennial period.
The total strength of the Police Force in 1918 was Europeans 159, Indians 481, Chinese 588, making a total of 1,228 (as compared with 1,229 in 1917) exclusive of the five superior officers and staff of clerks and coolies. These figures include police paid for by the Railway and other Government Departments. Of this force 16 Europeans, 121 Indians, and 36 Chinese were stationed in the New Territories daring the year.
Up to the end of the year one Assistant Superintendent, one Probationer, and 67 members of the Hongkong Police Force had proceeded on active service.
The District Watchmen Force, numbering 100, to which the Government contributes $2,000 per annum, was well supported by the Chinese during the year. These watchmen patrol the streets in the Chinese quarter of the City. They are placed on police beats and are supervised by the European police ou section patrol.
The total number of persons committed to Victoria Gaol was 3,577 as compared with 3,386 in 1917. Of these 1,498 were com- mitted for criminal offences, against 1,734 in 1917. Of committals For non-criminal offences there were 5 more for bawking with- out a licence, and 2 less for unlawfully boarding steamers, than in 1917.
The daily average of prisoners confined in the Gaol was 601, the average for 1917 being 600, and the highest previous average being 726 in 1904. The percentage of prisoners to population, according to the daily average of the former and the estimated number of the latter, was 0-10. The average percentage for the last ten years was 012. Owing, however, to the large floating population, which is constantly moving between the Colony and Canton, the percentage
IX-VITAL STATISTICS.
(a.)-POPULATION,
The civil population of the Colony, according to the Census taken on May 20th, 1911, was 456,739, of whom 104,287 reside in the New Territories and in New Kowloon; at the Census taken in 1906 it was 301,967 exclusive of the New Territories and of Now Kowloon. The estimated total population at the middle of the year under review was 561,500, but this includes the New Territories: and, as the birth and death figures given below do not include those from this area (with the exception of New Kowloon), the popola- tion for the purposes of caléniating these rates is estimated at 548,000, of whoni 13,500 were Non-Chinese-
The distribution of population estimated to the middle of 1918
was as follows:
Chinese
Population.
Non-Chinese Civil Community,
.....................................13,500
City of Victoria (including Peak),. 299,450 Villages of Hongkong,
15,300
Kowloon (including New Kowloon),
80,200
New Territories, sư7.
93,400
Population afloat,
59,650
Total Chinese Population,
548,000
561,500
Total Civil Population,
(6.)—PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION.
The activity in building operations, which has been so notice- able a feature since 1912, has not abated, and the demand for housing accommodation by the Chinese continued to be greatly in excess of the supply, as many of those who fled with their families to Hongkong during 1911, 1912, and 1913 elected to remain in the Colony.
A
452
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