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The total rainfall for the year was 73.73 inches as compared with 72.7 inches in the previous year and an average of 83.06 inches during the previous ten years; the wettest month was June with 26.52 inches and the driest was December with only 0.155 inch of rain.

The greatest amount of rain which fell on any one day was 8.45 inches on June 15th while no rain fell on 210 days of the year; the relative humidity of the atmosphere throughout the year was 77 per cent, as compared with 75 per cent, in the previous year. It was lowest in December with 66 per cent. and highest in March with 87 per cent. The average daily amount of sunshine throughout the year was 5.03 hours, and on 28 days only was no sunshine recorded.

These figures have been calculated from the monthly Reports issued by the Director of the Hong- kong Observatory; the temperatures are taken at 108 feet above mean sea-level and at 4 feet above the grass.

GENERAL SANITARY CONDITION.

The year has been a very busy one, owing to the enforcement of the provisions of the Insanitary Properties Ordinance of 1899, which was passed on November 28th of that year, and which required, inter alia, the provision of open spaces in the rear of many existing domestic buildings. A large num ber of old buildings throughout the Colony have now been provided with these back yards, and although they rarely exceed the legal minimum of 50 square feet in area, yet some improvement is already perceptible in the lighting and ventilation of the back part of many of these dwellings. All new domestic buildings must now be provided with backyards, or back lanes, varying from 6 feet to 14 feet in width, in accordance with the depth of the house, and as plans of no less than 1,319 new buildings have been sent in during the year, it will be seen that this provision will gradually have a marked effect upon the general sanitary condition of the Colony. The Sanitary Board are now engaged upon an earnest attempt to secure a reduction in the present excessive height of buildings, for the provisions of the present law in this respect are calculated to stultify, to a great extent, the benefit which should accrue from these open spaces in the rear of buildings. For more than fifty years past, many of the larger cities of Great Britain have prohibited the erection of buildings of a greater height than the width of the streets on which they front, while in this Colony domestic buildings can still be erected, under certain conditions, to a height of 46 feet in laues of only 14 feet in width, and in streets of just over 20 feet in width buildings can be erected of a height of 45 feet and can have balconies on either side of such street projecting over the footways and reducing the width of such street which is open to the sky to 11 or 12 feet only. Many old houses which were originally designed as two-story buildings have recently been raised to three and four-story buildings under this present law, and the sooner therefore the law is amended in this respect, the better will it be for the general sanitary condi- tion of the Colony.

The question of the resumption of insanitary or obstructive buildings is one which must shortly receive the serious attention of the Government, as there are many private lanes in the City which have been converted into insanitary courts by the erection of dwellings at both ends of the lane, leaving a passage way only below the first floor. Such obstructive buildings should be resumed and demolished and this can now be readily done under the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance of 1900, while legislation is needed to prohibit the further erection of such obstructive buildings.

Several additional latrines were in process of erection at the latter end of the year, but there is still the same urgent need for urinals, especially in the City of Victoria. This need has been pointed out by me since 1897, and it is, I believe, one of the principal causes of the offensive smells which arise from many of the street gullies and the drains, as, in the absence of suitable conveniences, the coolies have no option but to make use of these receptacles for the purpose.

POPULATION.

The population of the Colony at the Census taken in January, 1897, was 248,880 while at the Census taken in January, 1901, it was 283,955, exclusive of the Army and Navy.

The following is the estimated population to the middle of 1900:-

Non-Chinese Population,

9,130

City of Victoria including Peak and Stonecutters' Island,..............174,910 Chinese Population, Villages of Hongkong and Kowloon,

Army... Navy,

(City

Floating Population,

Total Chinese Population,

53,520

40,180

.268,610

2,568

3,110

Total Population of the Colony,

..283,418