HONGKONG
1031
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 general death rate per 1,000 in 1915 was 9.4 for the non- Chinese community only (including the Army and Navy) as compared with 12.9 in 1914. Among the Chinese community the death rate was 19.0 per 1,000 compared. with 23.88 in 1914 and 21.75 in 1913. The birth-rate was 8.4 per 1,000 among the Chinese community and 13.2 among the non-Chinese community.
The following table shows fifteen years' means of the annual and monthly values of the principal meteorological elements:-
Bar. Mean pressure
Do. Maximum
Do. Minimum
Mean temperature
Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept.
Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Year*
....30.040 20.024 29.939 29.844 29.750 29.654 29.619 29.628 29.719 29.874 29.989 30.055 29.844 .30.509 30.400 30.355 30.273 30.045 29.880 29.889 29.873 30.009 30.192 30.311 30.444 30 509 .29.605 29.421 29.527 29.488 29.330 29.284 28-762 29.083 28.876 29.089 29.575 29.752 28.762
$0.4 76.2 69.2 62.7 71.7 85.3 80.8 74.3 67.7 76.4
60.0 58.4 62.8
Do. maximum
Do. minimum
Maximum
56.3 54.9 59.5 79.3 79.1
80.9 81.9 64.5 62.9 67.0 74.5 81.4 85.3
€6.9
70.2 76.8
81.4
86.7
86.4
73.6
77.6
78.3
77.6
76.6
72.5 65.1
58.5 68.1
82.1 88.6
91.5
93.6
94.0
97.0
$4.0 93.8 85.6
81.9 1-7.0
Minimum
32.0
38.4
45.9
51.8
62.0
68.9 7.21
7.16
65.6 67.4
46.7
40.7 32.0.
Mean daily range
8.2
8.0
7.5
7.6 7.8
7.7
8.4
8.8
8.7
8.3
9.2
9.2
$.3.
Mean humidity
74
76
83
85
83
83
82
83
77
71
66
67
77
Mean rain fall.
1.442
1.688
2.987
5.511 11.713 15.681
12.555 14.362
9.668
4.911
1.445
1.221 83.148
Maximum in 24 hours
3.920
2.185
3.785
Mean max. in 24 hours
0.695
0.650
1.037
6.225 20.495 12.630 15.480 11.135 2.224 3.877 4.422 3.431 3.842
5.855
10.190
5.875 1.670 20.495
3.083
2.210
0.870 0.548 7.914
Maximum in 1 kour
0.725
....
0.970
1.570
Mean max. in 1 hour
0.230 0.247
0.444
2.420 0.905
3.400 2.855 3.480 2.380 1.218 1.405
1.950
1.650
1.690 0.500 3.480-
1.267
1.010
Hours of rain
52
70
83
79
Wind direction
.E by N E byN
E by N
Do. velocity mean(M.P. H )13.6
46
14.5 53 139.0 95.5
15 8 49 84.1
E 14.7
47 112.5
68 SE Eby N E by N 9.5 11.7 14.4 $6 89
85
54
0.553 03.02
35
0.165
2.087
30 ENE
38
761
ENE 13.1 12.1
E
13.0
90
63
108.
Do. Maximum
Hours of sunshine
1.195 90 37 66 E by S SEbyS SEbyS 12.9 12.2 11.1 43 48 108 155.1 164.5 210.2 200.5 195.2 213.5 187.0 178.5 19.291
Four successive years of comparative drought, 1898-1901, led to the assumption that the rainfall of Hongkong is decreasing. But such is not the case; the mean annual rainfall for the period 1902-11 was 84.21 inches against 68.29 inches for the period 1895- 1901. The rainfall has never been so heavy as in the period 1888-1894, however, when the mean annual fall was 101-08 inches. In 1914 it rose to 100.21 inches, and in 1915 it was 76.025 inches.
TRADE
Hongkong is a free port, and there is no complete official return of the imports and exports compiled, but the value of its trade is estimated in normal times at about £50,000,000 per annum. During the year 1915 the following tonnage entered and cleared :-
NATIONALITY
British
CLEARED
CLEARED
Vessels. Tons. Vessels. Tons.
ENTERED
NATIONALITY
ENTERED
Vessels. Tons.
Vessels. Tons.
5,132 5,400,519
American
38
167,199
5,077 35
5,273,041
Norwegian
178 175,490
143 140,613
162,580
Austrian
Chinese
1,006
692,094
1,015
700,824
Portuguese Russian Swedish
198
56,815
57
34,276
14
15,576
13
14,81
7
20,212
7
20,212.
Chinese Junks.. 7,320
727,819
11,827
1,320,562
No Flag
Danish
5
15,333
6
18,634
Steamshipsun-
Dutch..
98
263,752
106
242,548
French
160
228,698
15-2
220,431
der 60 tons trading
to 1,263
46,962
748
£3,266
German
ports outside
881 2,122,794 673 1,728,860
I
Japanese
the Colony..)
A total of 16,320 vessels of 9,934,163 tons entered, and 19,859 vessels of 9,910,428 tons cleared with cargoes. There also entered in ballast 8,614 vessels of 1,333,092 tons, and 5,352 vessels of 1,337,340 tons cleared in ballast. A Parliamentary paper issued in August, 1905, showed Hongkong to be, in respect of tonnage, the largest shipping port in the world. The trade chiefly consists of opium, cotton, sugar, salt, flour, oil, cotton and woollen goods, cotton yarn, matches, metals, earthenware, amber, ivory, sandalwood, betel, vegetables, granite, etc., etc. There is an extensive Chinese passenger trade, chiefly restricted, however, to the Straits Settlements, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, Siam, and Indo-China.
Hongkong possesses unrivalled steani communication. The P. & O. S. N. Co. and the M. M. Co. conveyed European mails weekly, and before the outbreak of the war, which eliminated German and Austrian shipping, the Norddeutscher Lloyd maintained a regular fortnightly mail service between Bremen and Hongkong. The China Mail S.S. Co., the Pacific Mail S. S. Co. and the Toyo Kisen Kaisha and the Java Pacific Line maintain a service with San Francisco, and the Canadian Pacific Ocean Services, Ltd., maintained a regular mail service with Vancouver, B.C., until war broke out,
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