Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841–1941
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL.
police beats and are supervised by the European police on section patrol. A detective branch of the force has done useful work under the supervision of a European Inspector.
The total number of persons committed to Victoria Gaol was 5,014 as compared with 4,990 in 1921. Of these 1,358 were committed for criminal offences against 1,732 in 1921. Of committals for non-criminal offences there were 107 more for hawking without a licence, and 5 more for unlawfully boarding steamers, than in 1921.
The daily average of prisoners confined in the Gaol was 787, the average for 1921 being 764, and the highest previous average being 756 in 1919. The percentage of prisoners to population, according to the daily average of the former and the estimated number of the latter, was 0.12. The average percentage for the last ten years was 0.12. Owing, however, to the large floating population, which is constantly moving between the Colony and Canton, the percentage of crime to population does not convey an accurate idea of the comparative criminality of the residents of the Colony. The Victoria Gaol has accommodation for 700 prisoners, including patients in Hospital. The Branch Prison at Laichikok has accommodation for 200 prisoners in association.
The prison discipline was very satisfactory, the average of punishments per prisoner being 0.52 as compared with 12.6 in 1921 and 0.99 in 1920.
Long-sentence prisoners serving two years and upwards are taught useful trades, including printing, bookbinding, tin-smithing, mat-making, tailoring, carpentering, etc. The profit on the work done was $125,571.47 as against $77,750.18 in 1921. A sum of $3,298 was received and credited to Government for non-Government work as against $4,658 in 1921.
IX.-VITAL STATISTICS.
(a.)-POPULATION.
The civil population of the Colony, according to the census taken on April 24th, 1921, was 625,166, of whom 83,163 reside in the New Territories and in New Kowloon; at the census taken in 1911 it was 456,739 with 104,287 as the figure for the New Territories and New Kowloon. The estimated total population at the middle of the year under review was 662,200, 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 population for the purposes of calculating these rates is estimated at 578,200, of whom 15,200 were non-Chinese.