Sessional_Paper_1897 — Page 475

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18. In Return II. of the Report on the Census of 1891 the Chinese Land Population is stated to be 178,960. This number includes 1,132 persons employed in the Mercantile Marine, passengers, and on foreign men-of-war. The corresponding number for this year is 201,528 including 1,523 persons on board the foreign shipping. This is an increase of 22,568 or 12.61 per cent. In 1891 the number of adult males was 113,241 and of adult females 33,523; the percentage of the latter to the former being 29.60. In 1897 the number of adult females has risen to 38,860 and of adult males to 129,893, the percentage of females to males being 29.92. The number of Chinese families in Victoria in 1891 was said to be 14,120. In 1897, in the same area, it is returned as 21,740. This is an apparent increase of 53.88 per cent., and may be accounted for by heads of families neglecting to make the proper entry in the schedule in 1891. In the present census the enumerators were instructed to ascertain by enquiry the number of families in their sections, but the task of ascertaining the correct number is complicated by concubinage as well as by polygamy. There are two great hindrances to the increase of family life among the Chinese in Hongkong, namely, the position which the Chinese wife holds towards her parents-in-law and the difficulty of finding suitable accommodation affording privacy for families owing to the style of the buildings and the high rents.

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19. In the floating population the percentage of females to males is 60; the number of the latter being 19,872 and of the former 11,880. The total, 31,752, shows a decrease of 283 compared with last census.

The correct enumeration of this portion of the community is an exceedingly difficult task unless it can be accomplished in one day. On this occasion the enumeration of the harbour was not completed until the 24th of January, the work having commenced on the 20th at 9 P.M., the enumerators working all night in order to get as much done as possible before the boats began to move.

20. Of the Chinese land population, including those persons on board the European shipping, it is only a very inconsiderable number, namely, 4,002 who do not belong to the Kwang-tung province. There are 1,283 natives of the Fokien province, 336 of Kiang-su and 198 of Chekiang. Ten persons were not ashamed of belonging to the Boat Population, and 1,523 persons, of whom three-fifths are women, claim Hongkong as their native place. I think it probable that the persons who claim Annam, Corea and Siam as their native places are not Chinese, but Annamese, Coreans and Siamese. In addi- tion to stating the district of China or the province to which they belonged the Chinese were asked to state their birth-place, if not born in China, and 9,033 persons give it as Hongkong. Very probably this number should be larger. In Wanchai there was current a report that all persons born in Hongkong were to be at once re-vaccinated. One woman who had told the enumerator that her children were born' in Hongkong ran after him after he had left the house, and was very urgent that he should correct what she said was her mistake. In the saine district on the first day on which the schedules were distributed several women left their homes and ran away to the hill-side at the back of the town. In Saiyingpun there was also a little commotion among the lower classes, and one Fokien man, at whose house a schedule was left, made a great disturbance. As he did not understand Cantonese and refused to look at the schedule, the nisunderstanding was only put an end to by the Chief Watchman persuading him to go to one of the Fokien hongs where the taking of a census was explained to him. There was the usual number of persons who thought that they were being served with writs. In many cases it required some persuasion on the part of the enumerator to induce people to take the schedule, and I am afraid that where obstinacy seemed impervious to reason the enuinerator was driven to refer rather roughly to the penal clauses of the Census Ordinance. The Registrar General's Office received the assistance of the Chinese press in an endeavour to give as much publicity as possible to the intention of the Government to take a census and to allay the usual suspicions, and I do not well see what more could have been done beyond perhaps making an attempt to reach the people through their children by preparing a brief lecture in Chinese on a census and asking the Chinese teachers of the Grant-in-aid Schools to explain it to their scholars.

21. The natives of the Kwang-tung province number 197,526 persons. Of these, 156,603 belong to the Kwang-chau prefecture, of which Canton is the chief town. From the neighbouring district of San-on there are 21,697 persons in the Colony. From Pun-ue and Namhoi, the two districts in which Canton is situated, 27,421 and 22,470 respectively. Whilst 27,090 come from Tung-kun and 18,235 from San-ui.

22. In the Report on the Census of 1891 the term Victoria was restricted to the ten registration districts, the easterù boundary of which is the west side of Causeway Bay. For sanitary purposes the town now extends as far as North Point, and in the present report the term Victoria is used in this sense unless another meaning is expressly given to it.

23. The population of Victoria consists of 6,446 Europeans, Americans, Indians, Japanese, &c., 251 Eurasians and 160,273 Chinese. The population of each of the ten health districts into which the town is now divided is given in Table XX. For the purpose of comparison with the previous census, the Chinese population of eight of the Registration Districts is given in Table XVIII. This table does not include the Chinese living in houses or tenements occupied by members of another raçè, The most noticeable feature in the return is the large increase of 11,011 (32 per cent.) in the popu- lation of the Saiyingpún District. In the Taipingshan District there is an apparent decrease of 12,518, but in 1891 the houses which have since been destroyed in the Taipingshan Resumption Area were occupied by 13,643 persons, so there is an increase also here, though slight. In the Sheangwan District there is a decrease of 58. In the Chungwan District there is an increase of 5,001 or 14 per cent., ağl