4
3. There are a number of advisory boards and committees, such as the Board of Education, Harbour Advisory Committee, Labour Advisory Board, etc., composed of both official and unofficial members. They are frequently consulted and are of much assistance to the Government.
4. The English Common Law forms the basis of the legal system, modified by Hong Kong Ordinances of which an edition revised to 1923 has been published. The law as to civil procedure was codified by Ordinance No. 3 of 1901. The Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act 1890 regulates the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in Admiralty cases.
5. The daily administration is carried out by the twenty-eight Government departments, which are officered exclusively by members of the Civil Service. The most important of the purely administrative departments are the Secretariat, Treasury, Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, Harbour, Post Office, Imports and Exports Office, Police and Prisons departments. There are seven legal departments, including the Supreme Court and the Magistracies. Two departments, the Medical and Sanitary, deal with public health; one, the Education, with education; and one, the largest of all the Government departments, the Public Works, is concerned with roads, buildings, waterworks, piers and analogous matters.
6. There have been no changes in the system of Government in the year under review.
Chapter III.
POPULATION AND BIRTHS AND DEATHS.
Variation in population in Hong Kong is more dependent on immigration and emigration than on births and deaths. Movements to and from the Colony are influenced by events in China and owing to the large numbers who come and go daily it is impossible to give more than a very rough estimate of the actual population, except during census years.
2. The following table shows the estimated population for the Colony for the middle of 1934.
Non-Chinese (mostly resident in Victoria and Kowloon) 20,908 Chinese in Victoria 373,199 Chinese in Hong Kong Villages 47,059 Chinese in Kowloon and New Kowloon..... 300,550 Chinese in junks and sampans 100,000 Chinese in New Territories 102,776 Total... 944,492