Sessional_Paper_1894 — Page 101

97

No.

HONGKONG.

ACTING REGISTRAR GENERAL'S REPORT FOR 1893.

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor, on the 7th March, 1894.

REGISTRAR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

HONGKONG, 25th January, 1894.

SIR,-I have the honour to transmit my Report on the work of this Department for the year 1893.

REVENUE COLLECTED BY THE DEPARTMENT.

The Revenue collected during the year amounted to $81,757.65, an increase of $4,369.48 over that collected in 1892. Tables I A, B, and C show particulars of the revenue; the large increase in hawker's licence fees being chiefly due to the fact that only one regular quarter's fees were collected in 1892, those for the first three quarters of the year having been already paid in 1891.

These fees are now collected quarterly in accordance with the Ordinance.

WOMEN AND GIRLS PROTECTION ORDINANCE (11 of 1890).

230 women and girls were detained under Part II of the Ordinance and disposed of as shown in Table II A. Table II B gives the number of girls allowed out under security whose guardians are obliged to periodically bring them to this Office. Table II C. is a list of persons reported missing and of those recovered, and Table II D. one of prosecutions, instituted by the Department under this and other Ordinances, involving 50 persons of whom 45 were convicted.

Returns are given in Tables III A and B of the movements of prostitutes and servants in brothels during the year. The sections of Ordinance 11 of 1890 relating to the registration of brothels are of doubtful utility.

The Committee of the Pó Leung Kuk and other members of the Chinese Community continued to give valuable assistance to the Registrar General in carrying out the provisions of the Ordinance. After an exhaustive enquiry by a Committee of the Legislative Council an Ordinance was passed incorporating the Pó Leung Kuk but it still awaits the sanction of the Secretary of State.

FEMALE EMIGRATION.

Table IV shows the number of women, girls and boys passed by an officer of the Harbour Master's Department assisted by an officer from the Registrar General's Office.

The total number was 9,109 as compared with 6,550 in 1892.

POPULATION.

The population of the Colony on the 31st December estimated on the average increase during the period 1857-91 would amount to—–

British and Foreign

(including Army and Navy).

10,686.

Chinese.

228,038.

Total.

238,724

I am inclined to believe that this estimate is rather under than above the mark from the following consideration:-

The number of pigs slaughtered for food in the Colony during the years 1891, 1892 and 1893 was 122,942, 126,766 and 131,298 respectively.*

If the population ascertained at the Census be taken as a basis, that in May last year, judging from the above figures which show a regular increase, would amount to about 238,200, and presuming that the increase is maintained it would probably amount to at least 240,000 on the last day of the year. I therefore fix the estimate of the population on the 31st December at 238,724.

MARRIAGES,

The number of marriages in 1893 was 84; but a number of them were not those of residents in Hongkong. The state of the law in ignoring marriages where both parties are non-Christians is not quite satisfactory.

BIRTHS AND DEATHS.

Table V A shows the number of Births and Deaths. The births are below those for 1892 by 42 while the number of deaths is greater by 515.

The annual rates for births and deaths per 1,000 of the estimated population are 7.54 and 22.71 respectively.

* These figures were supplied by the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon.