Sessional_Paper_1897 — Page 473

467

No. 28

97

HONGKONG.

REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF THE COLONY FOR 1897.

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of Ilis Excellency the Governor.

REGISTRAR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

HONGKONG, 20th June, 1897.

SIR, On the 30th November last instructions were received to take a Census of the Colony on the night of the 20th January on the same lines as the census taken in 1891.

2. The suitability of the date was questione by so ne who maintained that it was so near to China New Year's Day, which fell this year on the 2nd February, that the usefulness of the returns would be diminished owing to the custom, prevalent among the Chinese, of returning home for the New Year. There was certainly some ground for this criticism, but after extensive enquiries I am inclined to think that the statistics, at any rate of Victoria, have not been seriously affected, the bulk of the people who leave the Colony at the end of the year not starting until a few days later, and a number of Chinese coming from the mainland to Hongkong for a few days at this time. On the other hand, the quarrymen employed in the quarries along the Shaukiwan "Road had all left, and a number of fishing boats had gone, as is their custom, to Macao.

3. The recurrence of the plague last year and the consequent exodus of a large number of the Chinese had prevented the census being taken at a much earlier date, and any postponement would have had to be for at least seven weeks.

4. The Chinese population fluctuates exceedingly, and is affected one way or another by each one of the numerous festivals observed in China, and it is not easy to decide upon the best occasion for taking a census, but probably the most suitable time is early in the Chinese eleventh moon.

5. The special object of the census was to discover, if possible, in what way the population of Victoria had been affected by the sanitary measures occasioned by the plague in 1894, such as the resumption of Taipingshan, the closing of basements, the removal of cocklofts and the enforce- inent of the laws against overcrowding. It will require an exact knowledge of the town and of the changes which have taken place since the last census to draw the correct deductions from the attached returns. Suffice it at present to point out that from Table XIX. it appears that an area which was occupied by 110,007 persons in 1891 now holds 130,172, an increase of a little over 20,000, and that in every case where an enumerator has had to deal with more than 2,000 persons the number is very probably under the mark.

6. The particulars required for the immediate purpose of the census were simply the age, sex and race of each person. In addition to these, however, the birth-places and native-places of the Chinese land population have been ascertained, and the birth-places and the various races of the Europeans, Americans, &c.

7. The use of the two terms "race" and "nationality" gave rise to a discussion which was of an academic rather thau of a practical interest, as the meaning which was to be attached to the two words was explained on the census schedules. Good authority can be found in modern standard diction- aries for conflicting uses of the words. Some natives of the British Isles seemed to have found a difficulty as to what entry should be made under the healing of race, but ninety-five per cent. elected to put themselves down as English, Scotch, Irish or Welsh."

8. Certain preliminary returns were made public on the first of February. They were compiled from the figures furnished by each enumerator, and could only be regarded as approximate. In pre- paring the attached tables the schedules were compared with the enumerators' books and the necessary corrections made. With the exception of the Chinese population of Victoria in which an error of 4,700 had been made and of the non-Chinese population of British Kowloon in which there was one of 270, the corrections required were unimportant.

9. The European and American population has been divided in some of the tables into Portu- guese and those other than Portuguese. There is a sufficient distinction between the l'ortuguese population and other Europeans to make this division advisable aud interesting. The Portuguese of Hongkong for a European community settled in the Tropics, thoroughly acclimatised and apparently not recruited to any extent from Europe. It will not be for another generation that any other portion of the European community will be in a similar position. It is only now that a generation is