The Population of China
31
As these returns bear no proportion to the general population of the country, or to the relative extent of the various provinces, many fortuitous and local circumstances must have caused the obvious incongruities. For example: in the adjacent provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangse, in which the whole mass of population is in the proportion of two to one, the recipients are as 46 to 1, and as regards age, while the proportion of those above 80 is represented at 19 to 1, those above 90 are only a little more than 5 to 1. In all these matters the greater or less co-operation of the local authorities is one of the most important elements in producing a result. Kwangse is extremely mountainous, and bordered on the northwest by the country of the Meaou-tsz, or aborigines, the districts adjoining which are but in a half-reclaimed state, and governed by officers of a character and denomination distinct from those of the Provinces. But it is inexplicable that the province of Pechile, in which Peking is situated, should exhibit so small a proportional return, especially as compared with the adjacent province of Shantung. Hoo Kwang, with a population of 26 millions, has 37,354 indigent persons above 70, while Szechuen, whose population is 21 millions, presents only 176 persons in that category.
I think there is abundant evidence of redundant population pressing more and more heavily upon, and suffering more and more severely from, an inadequate supply of food. Though there are periods when extraordinary harvests enable the Chinese to transport rice, the principal food of the people, from one province to another, — and sometimes even to foreign countries, —— yet of late the importations from foreign countries have been enormous, and China has drawn largely on the Straits, the Philippines, Siam, and other places, to fill up a vast insufficiency in supply. Famine has, notwithstanding, committed dreadful ravages, and the provisions of the Imperial Granaries have been wholly inadequate to provide for the public wants. It is true that cultivation has been greatly interfered with by intestine disorders, and that there has been much destruction by inundations, incendiarism, and other accidental or transitory causes; but without reference to these, I am disposed to believe that there is a greater increase in the numbers of the population than in the home production of food for their use. It must be remembered, too, that while the
THE POPULATION OF CHINA
31
As these returns bear no proportion to the general population of the country, or to the relative extent of the various provinces, many fortuitous and local circumstances must have caused the obvious incongruities. For example: in the adjacent provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangse, in which the whole mass of popula- tion is in the proportion of two to one, the recipients are as 46 to I, and as regards age, while the proportion of those above 80 is represented at 19 to 1, those above 90 are only a little more than 5 to 1. In all these matters the greater or less co-operation of the local authorities is one of the most important elements in producing a result. Kwangse is extremely mountainous, and bordered on the northwest by the country of the Meaou-tsz, or aborigines, the districts adjoining which are but in a half reclaimed state, and governed by officers of a character and denomination distinct from those of the Provinces. But it is inexplicable that the province of Pechile, in which Peking is situated, should exhibit so small a proportional return, especially as compared with the adjacent province of Shantung. Hoo Kwang, with a population of 26 millions, has 37,354 indigent persons above 70, while Szechuen, whose population is 21 millions, presents only 176 persons in that category.
I think there is abundant evidence of redundant population pressing more and more heavily upon, and suffering more and more severely from, an inadequate supply of food. Though there are periods when extraordinary harvests enable the Chinese to transport rice, the principal food of the people, from one province to another, — and sometimes even to foreign countries, —— yet of late the importations from foreign countries have been enormous, and China has drawn largely on the Straits, the Philippines, Siam, and other places, to fill up a vast insufficiency in supply. Famine has, notwithstanding, committed dreadful ravages, and the pro- visions of the Imperial Granaries have been wholly inadequate to provide for the public wants. It is true that cultivation has been greatly interfered with by intestine disorders, and that there has been much destruction by inundations, incendiarism, and other accidental or transitory causes; but without reference to these, I am disposed to believe that there is a greater increase in the numbers of the population than in the home production of food for their use. It must be remembered, too, that while the
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