K 10
sub-districts 1, 6 and 9, Health District 12 comprises sub-districts 2 and 3, and Health District 13 comprises sub-districts 4 and 5. The Non-Chinese population of Old Kowloon at the 1906 Census was 2,269 civilians and 2,215 troops, most of whom reside in sub-districts 1 and 2, while the Non-Chinese population of New Kowloon was 17.
BIRTHS.
The births registered during the year were as follows:-
Males. Females. Total. Chinese, 874 328 1,202 Non-Chinese, 170 145 315 Total 1909, 1,044 473 1,517 1908, 937 475 1,412This gives a general birth-rate of 44 per 1,000 as compared with 42 per 1,000 in 1908 and 43 per 1,000 in 1907.
The birth-rate amongst the Non-Chinese community was 15.38 per 1,000 as compared with 14.43 per 1,000 in 1908 and 15.95 in 1907.
The nationalities of the Non-Chinese parents were as follows:-- British 134, Portuguese 91, Indian 47, Malay and Filipino 13, German 11, American 5, French 3, Jewish and Spanish 2 each, Swedish, Roumanian, Brazilian, Italian, Anuamese, Japanese and Norwegian 1 each.
The number of Chinese births registered does not give an accurate record of the number of births which have occurred. Owing to the custom of the Chinese of not registering births unless the child has survived for a month and often in the case of female children not at all, it is probable that the majority if not all of the infants which are sickly at birth or die before they have lived one month have not had their births registered. It is customary, therefore, to assume that all children of one month old and under who are admitted to the various convents (being brought there sick by poor people) and all young infants found dead in the streets, harbour, hillsides, etc., by the Police, have been born in the Colony but not registered. By adding the number of such children to the number of the registered births it is assumed that a somewhat more correct number of births is obtained and from this is calculated a corrected birth-rate.
The number of such children in 1909 was 425 males and 646 females, total 1,071, which being added to the registered births, makes a total of 2,588 as compared with 2,264 in 1908. The corrected birth-rate is therefore 75 while amongst the Chinese community alone the rate becomes 70 instead of 37 per 1,000.