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The birth-rate among the non-Chinese community alone was 13.9 per 1,000 as compared with 15.2 per 1,000 in 1903, and 12.6 per 1,000 in 1902.
The nationalities of the non-Chinese parents were as follows:-British 16 Portuguese 73, Indian 37, Malay and Philippino 22, German 13, American 3, French 2, Austrian, Russian, Persian, Arab, African, Brazilian, and Creole one each.
The number of 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 infants 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 1904 was 203 males and 369 females making a total of 572 and the addition of these figures to the registered Chinese births gives a total of 1,514, and a corrected birth-rate of 4.9 per 1,000, while among the Chinese alone the rate becomes 44 per 1,000, instead of 2.7 per 1,000.
The preponderance of male bi us over female births is very marked among the Chinese, the proportion among the registered births being 193 male births to every 100 female births, and even with the addition of the 572 unregistered births referred to above, the proportion is 119 male births to 100 female births. Among the non-Chinese community there is a remarkable preponderance of female births, the proportion being only 83 male births to every 100 female births. In former years there has always been an excess of male births, the proportion in 1903 being 111 males to 100 females, while in 1902 the figures were the same.
DEATHS.
The total number of deaths registered during the year was 6,118, as compared with 6,185 in 1903 and 6,783 in 1902. The death-rate for 1904 was therefore 16-94 per 1,000 as compared with 18.9 per 1,000 for 1903 and 21.7 per 1,000 for 1902. These deaths include 495 from Plague.
The following Table gives the death-rates during the past twenty years inclu- sive and exclusive of deaths from Plague and exclusive in every case of the Naval and Military populations and deaths, as until the last ten years these latter figures were not recorded :
1885
32.36
· 1895
21.89
1886
31-79
1896
24.25
1887.
28:59
Average
1897
19.13
Average
29.62
22-46
1888
31-72
1898
22.71
1889
23.64
1899
24.33
1890
23.19
1900
24.12
1891
23.80
1901.
24.03
1892
20.70
Average
1902
22.18
Average
24.15
21.58.
1893
22-70
1903
19.30
1894
30.37
1904
18.29
Excluding Plague
1895
21.74
1900
21.10
1896
19.79
1901
19.03
1897
19.05
Average
1902
20.32
Average
19.44
18.47
1898
17.98
1903
15.10
1899
18.65
1904
16-79)
It is always gratifying when a Department can look back over a decade of strenuous work and show continued progress in the right direction, and a study of the foregoing table of death-rates will demonstrate the fact that so far as the health of the Colony is concerned there has been a progressive improvement since the re- organization of the Sanitary Department in 1895.
The total number of deaths among the Chinese community was 5,882 which is equal to a death-rate of 17 18 per 1,000 as compared with 19-1 per 1,000 during the previous year.
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