CO129-400 - Governor Sir May - 1913 [3-4] — Page 364

T

*

ཝཱ

I

357

1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

102.8

54.3

89.8

31.8

83.2

are

These ratios necessarily influenced to some extent by the

healthiness or otherwise (from a malarial point of view)

of the last station occupied by our Troops, and this es-

pecially applies to the Indian Regiments, yet on the whole

the Military and Police figures afford a most reliable in-

dication of the steady decrease in the malaria infection of

the Colony generally, as these persons are under constant medical supervision. The general civilian figures are com-

plicated by various factors over which we have little or

no control, the most important of which is the fluctuating nature of the population of this Colony which adjoins the

mainland of China, for nearly four thousand Chinese persons

enter and leave Hong Kong daily. In addition to this steady daily interchange, the Colony experienced during 1911 and

1912 an abnormal influx of Chinese refugees, to the number

of forty to fifty thousand, many of whom would be heavily infected with the malarial parasite. These people were driven to Hong Kong by the political unrest in Chine which ultimately led to the overthrow of the dynasty and the

establishment of a republican Government.

1911

The last Census was taken on May 20th, and the influx of refugees commenced in April of that year and con- tinued until the end of the year, so that estimates of popu- lation based on the Census figures must necessarily under- state the actual population. This explains the apparent increase in both the birth and death rates for 1912, for it has been assumed that the influx was of a more or less tem-

porary nature, and the Census figures have been used in

ing