1887-1903
·COLONIAL REPORTS- -ANNUAL.
165
9
331,070 tons or 23 per cent., and an increase under the Japanese flag of 194,104 tons or 195 per cent. British shipping represented 53.4 per cent. of the total tonnage entered and cleared during the year (as compared with some 70 per cent. for 1894) and Foreign tonnage, exclusive of native craft, represented 21 per cent.
The above statistics are of considerable interest as affording a further illustration of the rapid progress and commercial development of Japan, whilst the increase in the number of German vessels would appear to point to lower freights outwards in foreign bottoms and to cheaper railway transit to foreign ports of shipment.
PUBLIC PEACE and Good Order.
The criminal statistics for the year are exceedingly satisfactory. The total number of cases reported to the Police was 12,975, shewing a decrease, as compared with the returns for 1895, of 400 cases or nearly 3 per cent. Dividing these cases into serious and minor offences there is a decrease, as compared with the previous year, of 453 cases or 16.37 per cent. in the former, and of 53 cases or .49 per cent, in the latter category.
Whilst, however, it is gratifying to notice a remarkable decrease of such offences as larceny and unlawful possession, which are only too common amongst the Chinese, I regret to have to record 8 cases of murder as against 3, and 120 cases of burglary and larceny in dwellings as against 81 in the preceding year. There were also 6 somewhat serious gang robberies during the year, one of which was unhappily attended by the murder of a district watchman, for which the assailant ultimately suffered the extreme penalty of the law.
PUBLIC HEALTH.
I regret to say that during the year the Colony experienced another serious outbreak of Bubonic Plague, and although the epidemic was neither so extensive nor so appalling in its results as the terrible visitation of 1894, it was attended by an alarming mortality and taxed the resources of the Sanitary and Medical Authorities to the fullest extent before it was finally controlled.
The disease broke out in the first week of January and continued to run its course notwithstanding every effort to arrest it until in the week ending the 30th May no fewer than 100 cases with 81 deaths were recorded. From that date the epidemic rapidly declined, although cases continued to occur until the end of November.
1887-1903
·COLONIAL REPORTS- -ANNUAL.
165
9
331,070 tons or 23 per cent., and an increase under the Japanese flag of 194,104 tons or 195 per cent. British shipping repre- sented 534 per cent. of the total tonnage entered and cleared during the year (as compared with some 70 per cent. for 1894) and Foreign tonnage, exclusive of native craft, represented 21 per
cent.
The above statistics are of considerable interest as affording a further illustration of the rapid progress and commercial development of Japan, whilst the increase in the number of German vessels would appear to point to lower freights outwards in foreign bottoms and to cheaper railway transit to foreign ports of shipment.
PUBLIC PEAce and Good Order.
The criminal statistics for the year are exceedingly satisfactory. The total number of cases reported to the Police was 12,975, shewing a decrease, as compared with the returns for 1895, of 400 cases or nearly 3 per cent. Dividing these cases into serious and minor offences there is a decrease, as compared with the previous year, of 453 cases or 16.37 per cent. in the former, and of 53 cases or 49 per cent, in the latter category.
Whilst, however, it is gratifying to notice a remarkable decrease of such offences as larceny and unlawful possession, which are only too common amongst the Chinese, I regret to have to record 8 cases of murder as against 3, and 120 cases of burglary and larceny in dwellings as against 81 in the pre- ceding year. There were also 6 somewhat serious gang robberies during the year, one of which was unhappily attended by the murder of a district watchman, for which the assailant ultimately suffered the extreme penalty of the law.
PUBLIC HEALTH.
I regret to say that during the year the Colony experienced another serious outbreak of Bubonic Plague, and although the epidemic was neither so extensive nor so appalling in its results as the terrible visitation of 1894, it was attended by an alarm- ing mortality and taxed the resources of the Sanitary and Medical Authorities to the fullest extent before it was finally controlled.
The disease broke out in the first week of January and continued to run its course notwithstanding every effort to arrest it until in the week ending the 30th May no fewer than 100 cases with. 81 deaths were recorded. From that date the epidemic rapidly declined, although cases continued to occur until the end of November.
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