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year 1907. The number of minor offences reported shows a decrease of 475 as compared with 1910, and was 877 below the average of the quinquennial period.
The total strength of the Police Force in 1911 was Europeans 134, Indians 399, Chinese 547, making a total of 1,080 (as compared with 1,042 in 1010) exclusive in each case of the five superior officers and staff of clerks and coolies. These figures include police paid for by the railway and other government departments, and by private firms. Of this force 13 Europeans, 92 Indians and 47 Chinese were stationed in the New Territories during the year, under the District Officer.
The District Watchmen Force, numbering 124, to which the Government contributes $2,000 per annum, was well supported by the Chinese during the year. These watchmen patrol the streets in the Chinese quarter of the City. They are placed on police heats and are supervised by the European police on section patrol.
The total number of persons committed to Victoria Gaol was 4,178 as compared with 4,867 in 1910. Of these 1,191 were com- mitted for criminal offences, against 1,212 in 1910. Of committals for non-criminal offences there were 9 leas under the Prepared Opium Ordinance, and 13 less for infringement of Sanitary Bye-laws, than in 1910.
The daily average of prisoners confined in the Gaol was 595, the average for 1910 being 547, and the highest previous average being 726 in 1901. The percentage of prisoners to population, according to the daily average of the former and the estimated number of the latter, was 014, which is the average percentage for the last ten years. 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 Goal has accom- modation for 590 prisoners.
The prison discipline was satisfactory, the average of punish- ments per prisoner being 161 as compared with 1:33 in 1910 and 1:38 in 1909.
Long sentence prisoners serving two years and upwards are taught useful trades, including printing, book-binding, washing, mat-making, tailoring, oakum-picking, etc. done was $51,833 as against $48.002 in 1910. There was $4,627 The profit on the work received and credited to Government for non-Government work against $4,253 in 1910.
IX.-VITAL STATISTICS.
(12.) POPULATION.
The civil population of the Colony, according to the Census taken on May 20th. 1911, was 456,739, of whom 104,287 reside in the New Territories and in New Kowloon; at the Census taken in 1906
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it was 301,967 exclusive of the New Territories and of New Kowloon. The estimated total population at the middle of the year under review was 464,277, but this includes the New Territories; and, as the death figures given below do not include those from this area (with the exception of New Kowloon), the population for the purposes of calculating death-rates is estimated at 373,627, of whore 18,837 were non-Chinese.
The distribution of the population at the Census was ne follows:-
Non-Chinese Civil Community
12,075
City of Victoria (including Peak) 219,386 Villages of Hongkong
16,106
Chinese Population.
Kowloon (including New Kow-
loon)..
67,602
New Territories
80,622
Population afloat
60,948
444,684
456,739
Total Chinese Population.
Total Civil Population
(b) PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION.
The gradual replacement of the old type of Chinese dwelling by the now premises erected in accordance with the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance 1903 is effecting a slow, but certain, im- provement in the healthiness of the native quarters; but this has been somewhat discounted during the past year, by an abnormal influx of Chinese refugees from the Canton district, which was coincident with the revolutionary movement in South China. It has been estimated that at least twenty thousand people arrived in Hongkong within a period of a few weeks during the months of April and May from this cause, and although some of these fugitives had no doubt returned to China before the close of the year, yet there is ample evidence that a sufficient number have remained to throw a consi- derable strain upon the housing accommodation of the Colony. A further, but smaller, infus due to similar causes occurred during the month of November. The chief sufferers from this cause would seem to be the Portuguese, who are largely employed as clerks, accountants, etc., in both Government and private offices. This section of the community has for some years past occupied dwellings of European type in the neighbourhood of Caine Road, Shelley Street, Mosque Terrace, etc., but they have recently been dispossessed by more wealthy Chinese tenants from Canton. At the same time the poorer classes of refugees have crowded into the native quarters of the City and of Kowloon, with the result that there has no doubt been some amount of overcrowding of a temporary nature. This has been dealt with, where it has been found that premises unfit for habitation-such for instance as basements--have been occupied, or where the overcrowding has been excessive; but it has been felt that the conditions were for the time being abnormal, and a rigid enforcement of the overcrowding laws has not been attempted.
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