1904-1919
HONG KONG. 1911.
215
21
Long-sentence prisoners serving two years and upwards are taught useful trades, including printing, book-binding, washing, mat-making, tailoring, oakum-picking, &c. The profit on the work done was $51,833 as against $48,902 in 1910. There was $4,627 received and credited to Government for non-Government work against $4,253 in 1910.
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 New Kowloon. The estimated total population at the middle of the year under review was 464,277, but this includes the New Territories; and, as the death figures given below do not include those from this area (with the exception of New Kowloon), the population for the purposes of calculating death-rates is estimated at 373,627, of whom 18,837 were non-Chinese.
The distribution of the population at the Census was as follows:
Non-Chinese civil community 12,075 City of Victoria (including Peak) 219,386 Chinese Population. Villages of Hong Kong 16,106 Kowloon (including New Kowloon) 67,602 New Territories 80,622 Population afloat 60,948 Total Chinese population 444,664 Total Civil population 456,739(b.) PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION.
The gradual replacement of the old type of Chinese dwelling by the new premises erected in accordance with the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903, is effecting a slow, but certain, improvement in the healthiness of the native quarters; but this has been somewhat discounted during the past year by an abnormal influx of Chinese refugees from the Canton district, which was coincident with the revolutionary movement in South China. It has been estimated that at least twenty thousand people arrived in Hong Kong within a period of a few weeks during the months of April and May from this cause, and although some of these fugitives had no doubt returned to China before the close of the year, yet there is ample evidence that a sufficient number have remained to throw a considerable strain