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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS.-ANNUAL.
as in Hong Kong. The Chinese criminal, and his name is legion, is a veritable desperado, and the proximity of the mainland of China, where there is little, if any, police system, affords a secure and convenient basis of operations to numerous bands of robbers who constitute an ever-present danger to the Colony and render the maintenance of a large and efficient police force here absolutely necessary.
The Climate, Weather, &c.
Perhaps the most treacherous feature in the climate of Hong Kong is the sudden and almost hourly change of temperature which takes place, more especially in the dry season. A remarkable instance of this is furnished by the readings of the thermometer in March 1894, the maximum temperature registered during that month being 79.2 and the minimum 49.6, or a difference of nearly 30 degrees. The highest temperature during the year was recorded in September, the thermometer registering 92.9 in that month, and the lowest reading, 41.4, was registered in the month of February.
The weather during the year calls for some comment. The dry season lasted longer than usual, extending far into May, and the backwardness of the wet weather at one time threatened a serious scarcity of water. All anxiety on this account was, however, dispelled by a copious fall of rain on the 12th May, which continued, with the usual intervals of fine weather, until the end of October, the total rainfall for the year amounting to some 104 inches, to which November and December contributed but the fraction of an inch.
Typhoons.
Towards the latter end of September and during the first week of October, the Colony experienced no less than three typhoons within as many weeks. The first two were not serious and may be dismissed with the bare record of their occurrence, but the third, which occurred on the 5th October, is said to have been almost as severe as the memorable storm of 1874.
The typhoon appears to have passed over the island of Luzon on the 2nd October, travelling W.N.W. at an average speed of 10 miles an hour until at noon, on the 5th October the centre was some 50 miles south of Macao. At this point it appears to have taken a more northerly course, embracing Hong Kong in the right-hand semicircle. For no less than 30 hours the Colony experienced a very strong gale veering from N.E. to S.W., which increased to typhoon force between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., the barometer falling to 29.20 at 5 p.m., at which time the centre of the storm was said to be passing over Macao, a distance of some 30 to 40 miles. Owing to the breakage of the Observatory anemograph, the velocity of the wind could not be accurately ascertained, but it is estimated that some of the gusts at the height