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The following table gives the acreage and total population of each Health District of the City of Victoria and the number of persons per acre; the built-over areas have been very carefully worked out and show in Districts 4, 6 and 7 a slightly less area than was given in my Report for 1901 as it has been found that they were there somewhat overstated :-
Non-Chinese
Persons per
Health Districts.
Total Acreage.
Built-over Area (including streets).
Chinese Houses.
Non-Chinese Houses.*
Chinese Population.
Population
(approximate) Acre on Built-
including over Areas.
Troops.
1
531
131
876
194
12,700
1,360
107
2
243
139
974
104†
23,180
1,476 Troops.
182
712
164
134
53
400
5,650
2,920
64
56
52
970
130
24,630
1,156
496
ది
29
27
968
19
22,260
200
832
30
27
882
5
19,310
50
717
7
36
31
823
5
14,320
60
465
:
8
49
46
933
20,900
20
455
..
9
44
44
1,063
25,080
130
573
10
252
105
772
53
12,970
530
128
Total,...
1,434
736
8,314
920
181,000
8,614
258
There are also some 1,800 Chinese servants, etc., resident at the Peak.
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, 7 and 8 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 132 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, 8.8 and 9.0 as compared with an average for the City of 7.4; this, in itself, is excessive, 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 Reservation 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 four years the number of persons per acre increased from 117.4 to 129.3, while almost all the central Health Districts of the City are daily be- coming even more crowded :-
www
CITY OF VICTORIA. No. of Persons per Acre.
Health Districts.
2
3
1897.
1901
15.3 95.6 37.1 25.3 104.1 50.3
4 447.6 448.4
5
6
7 8 761.1 569.3 449.7 381.0
6
770.4 638.8 381.1 421.2
10 Average. 545.9 30.4 117.4 562.7 50.4 129.3
* Exclusive of Barracks.
† A certain number of upper floors of Chinese houses are also occupied by Non-Chinese in this District.
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