Sessional_Paper_1902 — Page 623

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I have in previous Reports called attention to the acute surface crowding which exists in the more central districts of the City. District No. 5 shows more than 800 persons to the acre while Districts 6, 9, 4, 8 and 7 are also far too densely packed with human beings, and it is essential to the welfare of this Colony that a remedy should be speedily found and put into operation for this insani- tary condition. So far as I have been able to ascertain, there is no other City in the world which has 129 persons to the acre and yet this is the density of population of the City of Victoria as a whole, that is to say including all the outlying vacant lands, and the villages, Race Course and Cemeteries in No. 1 Health District, the Public Gardens and all the vacant Military land in Nos. 2 and 3 Health Districts, and all the unoccupied hill-side below the upper limit of the City Health Districts (ie., about 450 feet above high water mark). Glasgow which is the most densely crowded of the large cities of the United Kingdom has but 61 persons to the acre.

It will also be seen from the first table that Health Districts 2 and 9, in which districts the outbreaks of Bubonic Plague almost invariably commence and are the most severe, show the greatest number of occupants per floor, namely 9.1 as compared with an average for the City of 7.6; this, in itself, is ex- cessive, although well within the limit of thirty square feet of floor space per head, which is all that is, at present, legally required in any dwelling in the Colony, except within the European District Reser- vation area, where each person must be allowed one thousand cubic feet of air space-thus necessitating a larger floor area.

The following table gives a comparative statement of the number of persons per acre in each of the Health Districts of the City in 1897 (when a provisional Census was taken) and in 1901 (when the decennial Census was taken) and shows that during the past four years the number of persons per acre has increased from 117.4 to 129.3, and that almost all the central Health Districts of the City are daily becoming more crowded:-

CITY OF VICTORIA. No. of Persons per Acre.

Health Districts, 1 2

1897 ....

1901 ..

3

.15.3 95.6 37.1

.25.3 104.1 50.3

5

4

6

447.6 761.1 569.3 449.7

448.4 770.4 638.8 381.1

7

8

9

10 Average. 381.0 545.9 30.4 117.4

421.2 562.7 50.4 129.3

BIRTHS.

The births registered during the year were as follows:-

Chinese, Non-Chinese,

Males.

Females.

Total.

.....552

296

848

.124

116

240

.676

412

1,088

}

This is equal to a general birth-rate of 3.6 per 1,000 as compared with 3.3 in 1900, 4.3 in 1899 and 4.7 in 1898.

The birth-rate among the non-Chinese community alone was 11.9 per 1,000 as compared with 15.1 per 1,000 in 1900.

The nationalities of the non-Chinese parents were as follows:-British 104, Portuguese 72, Indian 37, German 13, Eurasian 4, French 4, Jew 2, American, Russian, Philipino and Malay one each.

The preponderance of inale births over female births is still very marked among the Chinese com- munity, being in the proportion of 186 male births to every 100 female births. The proportion among the non-Chinese community was 107 to 100 as compared with 137 to 100 in the previous year.

The number of the Chinese births registered does not give an accurate record of the total number of births of Chinese that have occurred in the Colony, for many of the infants that die during the first month or so of life remain unregistered, although their deaths must be registered to obtain the necessary burial orders. It has been customary, therefore, to add to the registered births the number of in- fants of one month old and under that die in the various Convents, or are found by the Police in the streets or in the Harbour. The number during 1901 was 128 males and 194 females making a total of 322, and the addition of these figures to the registered Chinese births gives a total of 1,410 as compared with 1,485 during the previous year. The corrected birth-rate is, therefore, 4.7 per 1,000, while among the Chinese alone the rate becomes 4.2 per 1,000. The total Chinese births as calculated in the above manner show a proportion of only 139 male births to every 100 female births, while the dead bodies of infants found in the streets or left at the doors of the Convents show 66 males to every 100 females, the explanation being that the Chinese have very little regard for the value of the lives of female children.