354
The total area of the City of Victorin at present built over is about 580 acres so that there are some 12 houses containing about 280 persons to the acre.
The Chinese boat population of the Colony is estimated at 33,150 and these people, it must be remembered, make their homes on board the small craft which throng the harbour and hold very little intercourse with the land population. The number of registered boats belonging to the port is as follows:
Fishing and Trading Junks,
Cargo boats, lighters, sampans, etc.,
Total,.
This gives an average of 3.4 persons to each boat.
6,068 3,663
9,731
The Chinese population of the Colony consists of 70.7 per cent of males and 29.3 per cent of females; at the 1891 census the percentage of males was 70.9 so that there has been very little change in this respect during the past quinquennium; the great majority of the Chinese and especially the men are young adults who have entered the Colony with the sole object of earning and accumulating money and many of whom return to the mainland as soon as that object is accomplished.
The City of Victoria has during the past two years been divided into eight Health Districts, to each of which is apportioned an Inspector of Nuisances; in consequence however of the large number of Chinese dwellings in the more central districts, I urged the Board to recommend the appoint- ment of at least two additional Inspectors and to re-arrange these health districts; the recommendation has been adopted by the Government, and there will now be ten health districts in the City of Victoria. The following table gives the number of floors (ie., separate Chinese dwellings) and the Chinese population of each of the existing, and also of each of the proposed health districts.
1896.
1897.
Dis-
Houses.
Floors.
trict.
Population.
Acre- Dis- trict. age.
Houses.
Floors.
Population.
Acre-
age.
1
503
811
7,250 531
503
811
∞ ~ ~ ~UN CO 2 J
8,250
531
2
925
2,212
20,440
267 2
925
2,212
20,440
267
3
16
42
2,610
158
3
16
42
2,610
158
1,041
3,048
24,390
.52
4
837
2,525
22,200
45
1,825
5,165
41,330
58
5
961
2,634
21,330
23
6
1,224
3,774
30,200
62
6
808
2,308
16,440
23
7
1,131
2,569
20,560
48 7
744
2,295
15,300
27
450
951
7,620 243 8
783
2,387
18,630
42
9
962
2,311
24,420
40
10
608
1,286
8,380
258
7,115
18,572
154,400 1,414
7,147
18,811
158,000
1,414
The Inspector in charge of No. 3 Health District also acts as Engineer in charge of the steam disinfecting apparatus, while this district contains moreover the great majority of the European dwelling houses; districts 1 and 10, although containing a smaller number of dwellings than, the remainder of the city districts, extend over a much wider area, and contain the city cemeteries which are also under the supervision of the Inspectors.
BIRTHS.
The births registered during the year were as follows:-
Chinese community, Non-Chinese,
Male.
Female.
Total.
584
394
978
130
125
255
714
519
1,233
This is equal to a birth-rate of 5.1 per 1,000 as compared with 5.8 during the preceding year. The number of births among Europeans was 113, (2 of which were illegitimate) equal to a birth-rate of 35.5 per 1,000; of these 96 were British, 14 German, 2 Swiss and 1 French.
The remaining births were distributed as follows :-
Portuguese 65, Indians 57, Malays and Manilamen 15, and Japanese 5.
The number of Chinese births registered does not convey, however, an accurate impression of the birth-rate among Chinese, for, as 1 pointed out in my Report last year, the births of a large number of infants, who die during the first month of life, are never registered.
15
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