AnnualReport-1934

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3. During the year 2,789,039 persons entered and 2,811,100 persons left the Colony, making a daily average of 7,641 arrivals and 7,702 departures. The daily average for 1933 was 7,637 arrivals and 7,431 departures.

4. Registration of Births and Deaths in the New Territories has been more fully enforced since 1932 and the number of births registered has steadily increased. Introduction of the new Births and Deaths Ordinance in the latter part of 1934 has caused a further increase, with the result that this year, for the first time, all birth and death rates have been calculated on the total population of the Colony including the New Territories.

5. The number of births registered was :-

Chinese Non-Chinese 20,424 462

6. The deaths registered among the civil population number 19,766 giving a crude death rate of 20.93 per mille as compared with 22.11 for the previous year.

Deaths. Estimated Population. Death rate per mille population. Chinese 19,516 923,584 21.13 Non-Chinese 250 20,908 11.96

7. The number of deaths of infants under one year was Chinese 7,094, non-Chinese 23. If the figures for Chinese births represented the total births, which they do not, the infantile mortality figure for the Chinese would be 347.34 as compared with 454.89 in the previous year. The infantile mortality figure among non-Chinese was 49.78 as compared with 88.30 in 1933.

Chapter IV. PUBLIC HEALTH.

In the absence of some general system of registration of sickness, the only sources of information available for gauging the state of the public health in this Colony are the returns relating to deaths, the notifications of infectious diseases and the records of Government and Chinese hospitals. Judging from the death returns the health of the Colony was better than that of the previous year. The crude death rate was 20.93 per mille as compared with 22.11 for 1933.

2. Respiratory diseases accounted for 39.97 per cent of the total deaths, the percentage for 1933 was 41.93. The principal diseases causing death were broncho-pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchitis, infantile diarrhoea and diarrhoea.