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8. During the last ten years it has often been remarked that the mode of life among Europeans in Hongkong has gradually been undergoing a change. Fortunes are not made so rapidly as in the old days, and Europeans, having to live in the Colony for long periods, begin to regard it more as a permanent home, which has led to there being more of what may be called "family life" than formerly. The figures of the Census tend to support this view, at any rate, so far as the British resident popula- tion is concerned. In it the male adult population has grown in ten years from 336 to 795, or more than doubled itself, and the female adult population has increased from 161 to 300, or 86.33 per cent., while the total number of boys and girls has increased from 288 to 353, or 22.57 per cent.

9. The figures of the Chinese population (see Return I A and I B) show that it has grown from a total of 150,690 to a total of 210,995, which is an increase of 60,305, or 40,01 per cent. Of the 210,995, 154,647 have been returned as natives of the Kwangtung Province, and 7,286 as natives of Hongkong, (see Return IV) whereas in 1881 the natives of Hongkong returned amounted to 3,668 only. This would seem to indicate that many of the Chinese resident here now regard the Colony as their home and do not hesitate to declare it as such. As was anticipated, the greatest increase has taken place in the city of Victoria, where the population amounts to 136,901, that is 40,045, or 41.3 per cent., more than the population of 1881, which was 96,856. In Return V will be found the population of each of the ten districts into which the city of Victoria is divided. As the population of each district was not given among the Census Returns of 1881, it is not possible to ascertain to what extent each district has grown in numbers since that year.

10. The question of overcrowding in the city of Victoria is one which has excited'attention for long, and last year an exhaustive report on the subject was submitted to Government. As to the figures representing the population contained in that report, it is stated—

"The enumeration of the people has been made by the Chinese district watchmen working "under the Registrar General. The method adopted was that of verbal inquiry of the "householders. The Committee believe they are justified in assuming that the returns they have received are fairly correct, but they cannot be viewed as being absolutely accurate as it is probable that in several instances the answers given to the district "watchmen depended in some measure on the idea which each particular person answer- "ing had as to the object of the question put."

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11. In order that the figures ascertained by the Census might be compared with those con- tained in the overcrowding report, the enumerators appointed to enumerate the population of the city of Victoria were instructed to follow the division of the City into 275 blocks, made by the late Surveyor General, for the use of the Committee appointed to inquire into the question of overcrowding and adopted by them in their report, each enumerator being assigned one or more blocks according to the estimated population. A return has been drawn up (Return VI) showing the difference between the figures of the overcrowding report, which were regarded by those who collected them as being pro- bably understated, and of the Census. A comparison between these two sets of figures shows that, though there may be discrepancies between them as to the detailed population of each block, the Census Returns by their total population of the same area as is covered by the overcrowding report not only support the opinion expressed in the report as to overcrowding, but show that overcrowding generally must be even greater than the report represents it to be. The total Chinese population of Victoria given in the overcrowding report is 125,901, whereas the Chinese population of Victoria as ascertained by the Census amounts to 136,901, a difference of 11,000. This matter will, no doubt, receive the attention of the sanitary authorities, to whose notice, however, I would recommend the following passage from a recent work on Chinese Characteristics:-

"Besides this, we must take account of the fact that in China breathing seems to be optional.

.... We hear much of Chinese overcrowding, but overcrowding is the normal "condition of the Chinese, and they do not appear to be inconvenienced by it at all, or "in so trifling a degree, that it scarcely deserves mention. If they had an outfit of Anglo- "Saxon nerves, they would be as wretched as we frequently suppose them to be."

12. Great as the increase of the Chinese population during the past decade has been in Victoria, it has been proportionately greater still in the villages or outlying districts of the Colony, taken as a whole (see Return VII A and VII B). The total population in them has almost doubled itself, having grown from 16,606 in 1881 to 32,490 in 1891. Kaulung and Shanki Wán are the two districts in which the chief increase has taken place, in both of which places the population is more than double what it was in 1881; the figures being-

Kaulung, Shauki Wán,

1881. 9,021 3,274

1891.

19,997 6,669

13. The increase in Kaulung is due to a variety of causes, among which may be enumerated the extended operations of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock_Company; the establishment of the Pier and Godown Company, the head-quarters of which are at Kaulung, and which finds employment for a large number of people, who are engaged in handling and storing the cargoes of the numerous ocean- going steamers, which go alongside the Company's wharves: the improved communication between