HONGKONG
413
than Portuguese 3,860, Portuguese 1,956, Indians 1,453; Eurasians 267, other races 903, Chinese 274,543. The mercantile marine numbered 2,181, of whom 1,002 were British and Foreign and 1,180 Chinese. The Chinese floating population numbered 40,100. The army numbered 7,640, and the Navy 5,597. Of the resident population and mercantile marine 3,007 were natives of the British Isles, 351 Americans, 103 French, 445 German, 165 Jewish, and 126 Spanish, the balance being spread over various other nationalities. The population of Victoria was 181,918, and that of the New Territory 102,254. The estimated population of the Colony exclusive of the New Territory on June 30th, 1903, was 326,081.
The Garrison, according to the Estimates for 1904-1905, consists of Artillery: 740 of all ranks. Engineers: One company, consisting of 13 officers and 194 men. Infantry: One battalion, 1,012 of all ranks. Army Service Corps: 5 officers and 24 men. Royal Army Medical Corps: 15 officers and 55 men. Colonial and Native Indian Corps: 44 companies of Infantry, four of Local Artillery, and one of Local Engineers; all ranks, 5,689. Army Ordnance Department, 7; Army Ordnance Corps, 31; Army Pay Corps, 8. Total of all ranks, 7.793. There is also a Volunteer Corps consisting of one troop of Mounted Infantry, two companies of Garrison Artillery, and one Com- pany of Engineers. H. E. Sir Matthew Nathan has succeeded in forming a Volunteer Reserve Association, composed of British residents over the age of 35.
The approaches to the harbour are strongly fortified, the batteries consisting of well constructed earthworks. The western entrance is protected by three batteries on Stonecutters' Island and two forts on Belcher and Fly Points, from which a tremendous converging fire could be maintained, completely commanding the Sulphur Channel. Another small battery, on the hill above and west of Richmond Terrace, has a wide range of fire. The Ly-ee-mùn Pass is defended by two forts on the Hongkong side and another on Devil's Peak on the mainland, and if vessels survived that fire they would then have to face the batteries at North Point and Hunghom which completely command the eastern entrance. Another battery on the bluff at Tsim-tsa Tsui, Kowloon, commands the whole of the centre of the harbour. The batteries are armed with the latest breech-loading ordnance.
In addition to the fortifications the Colony possesses a small squadron for harbour defence. This consists of the obsolete turret ironclad Wivern, 2,750 tons, now dismantled and being used as a distilling ship, and six torpedo boats. The crews of these vessels are borne in the receiving ship Tamar, which is also the headquarters of the Commodore and his staff. The Naval Yard is an extensive range of workshops and offices east of the Artillery Barracks, and the Naval Authorities have another large establishment on the Kowloon side near to Yau-ma-Ti.
CLIMATE
As intimated in earlier paragraphs, Hongkong formerly enjoyed a most unenviable notoriety for unhealthiness, and in years past the troops garrisoned here suffered grievously from malarial fevers. A great deal of the sickness in the early days of the Colony was believed to have been caused by excavating and otherwise disturbing the disintegrated granite of which the soil of the island mainly consists, and which appears to throw off malarious exhalations when upturned. At the present time, however, the Colony is one of the healthiest spots in the world in the same latitude. The influence of the young pine forests created by the Afforestation Department and the training of nullahs on the slopes have no doubt been beneficial in checking malaria, and the attention latterly bestowed on sanitation has not been without its due effect. The annual death rate per 1,000 for the whole population in 1903 was 18.9, as compared with 21.7 during the previous year and an average of 22 during the preceding five years. The death-rate among the British and Foreign races was 16.6, and among the Chinese 19.1.
The following table shows the fifteen years' means of the annual and monthly values of the principal meteorological elements, taken from the Observatory Report for 1898:-
Bar. Mean pressure Maximum
Minimum
Mean temperature
Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Year.
.30.159 30.132 30.055 20.958 29.863 29.704 29.738 29.755 29.824 29.982 30,103 30.181 29.959 30.307 30.390 30.308 30.158 30.045 29.880 29-882 29.851 92.984 3.157 3 .311 30.444 30 444 .29.636 29.421 29.552 29.576 29.447 29.284 28.762 29.-88 28.876 29.089 29.575 29.757 28.762 59.7 67.7 62.2 69.9 76.6 80.7 81.6 81.0 31.4 76.2 69.2 62.4 71.5 64.1 61.7 66.4 74.5 81.2 85.2 86.2 86.0 85.3 80.7 74.3 67.5 76.1
73.5 77.4 78.0 77.3 76.6 91.5 93.6 94.0 92.9 94.0 65.6
Mean maximum
Mean minimum
56.0 54.5 58.9
66.7
Maximum
79.2 79.0 82.1
88.6
Minimum
32.0
40.3 45.9
55.0 61.1
69.2
721
71 6
Mean daily range
8.1
7.2
7.4
7.7
7.7
7.8
8.2
8.7
8.7
72.5 65.3 58.3 67.9 93.8 85.6 81.9 94.0 30.8 50.6 40.7 32.0
8.3
9.0 9.2 8.2
Mean humidity
74
79
84
85
83
83
83
83
77
71
€5
04
87
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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