Directory_and_Chronicle_1920 — Page 1030

HONGKONG

951

numerous bungalows having been erected in the European reservation by missionaries and others.

POPULATION AND DEFENCES

A census taken in May, 1911, showed the total population of the Colony to be 456,739, consisting of 12,075 non-Chinese and 444,664 Chinese. Of this number of Chinese 383,716 constituted the land population. The boat population numbered 60,948 (of whom 31,893 were in Victoria harbour). In the City of Victoria there were 7,825 non- Chinese and 216,022 Chinese. The Peak population was returned as 723 non-Chinese and 1,749 Chinese. Exclusive of the Army and Navy the white population of the Colony was 6,035. The total civil population estimated to the middle of 1918 was 561,50, consisting of 13,500 non-Chinese and 518,000 Chinese. The Garrison consists of British and Indian troops. There is also a Defence Corps and a Police Reserve Corps.

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. Pine Wood 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 inainiand, 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. The Colony of Hongkong pays a military contribution fixed at 20 per cent. of the revenue.

In addition to the fortifications the Colony possesses a small squadron for harbour defence. The Naval Yard consists of a large dock, 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 Yaumati.

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 appeared 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 general death rate per 1,000 in 1918 was 13.00 for the European civil community only as compared with 7.7 in 1917. Among the Chinese community the death rate was 24.5 per 1,000 compared with 23.7 in 1917 and 24.6 in 1916. The birth-rate among the non-Chinese community was 22.07 in 1918. The birth statistics for the Chinese community do not give an accurate record of the number of births.

Four successive years of comparative drought, 1898-1901, led to the assumption that the rainfall of Hongkong was 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. Until last year the rainfall was never so heavy as in the period 1888-1894, when the mean annual fall was 101.08 inches. In 1914 it was. 100.21 inches, in 1915 it was 76.025 inches, in 1916 79.85 inches, in 1917 81.48 inches, and in 1918 101.605 inches.

TRADE

The value of the trade of Hongkong was estimated for many years at about £50,000,000 per annum, but the returns compiled by the Statistical Branch of the inports and Exports Department, established during the war, showed a total for 1918 of £127,990,977.

The total of the Shipping entering and clearing at ports in the Colony during the year 1918 amounted to 579,541 vessels of 29,518,189 tons, which, compared with the gures for 1917, shows a decrease of 53,537 vessels and 4,974,484 tons. Of the foregoing