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The nationalities of the Non-Chinese parents are as follows:-British 120, Indian 46, German 13, French 3, American 4, Portuguese 77, Philippino 10, Malay 8, Japanese 5, Jewish 5, Dutch 2, Arabian 2, Spanish, Roumanian, Italian, African, Brazilian and Eurasian 1 cach.
The number of Chinese births registered does not give an accurate record of the num- ber of births which have occurred. Owing to the custom of the Chinese in not registering births unless the child has survived for a month and often in the case of female children not at all, it is probable that the majority it not all of the infants which are sickly at birth or die before they have lived 1 mouth have not had their births registered. It is customary, therefore, to assume that 'all children of 1 month old and under who die in the various convents (being brought there sick by poor people) and all children found dead in the streets, harbour, hillsides, etc., by the police, have been born in the Colony but not registered. By adding the number of such children to the number of the registered births a corrected number of births is obtained and from this is calculated a corrected birth-rate.
The number of such children in 1905 was 282 males and 458 females, total 740, which being added to the registered births equals 1,728. The corrected birth-rate is therefore 4′7 while amongst the Chinese community alone the rate becomes 479 instead of 2-7.
The preponderance of male over female registered births is very marked amongst the Chinese there being 216 males to 100 females. Even with 740 above mentioned unregister- ed births the proportion is 124 males to 100 females. This suggests that even the corrected birth-rate may not be altogether trustworthy.
In the Non-Chinese community the proportion of male births to female births for 1905 is 103 to 100 as compared with 83 males to 100 females in 1904 and 111 males to 100 females in 1903 and 1902.
DEATHS.
The deaths registered during the year numbered 6,594. The death-rate was therefore 17.45 as compared with 16.94 in 1904. These deaths include 287 from Plague.
The following Table gives the death-rates during the past twenty years inclusive and exclusive of deaths from Plague and exclusive in every case of the Naval and Military populations and deaths, as until the last eleven years these latter figures were not recorded :—-
1886
31.79
1896
24.25
1887
28.59
1897
19.13
1888
Average
31.72
1898
Average
22.71
27.78
22.80
1889
23.64
1899
24.33
1890
23.19
1900
24.12
1891
23.80
1901
24.03
1892
20-70
1902
22.18
Average
1893
22.70
Average
1903
19:30
23.89
20-28
1894
30:37
1904
18.29
1895
21.89
1905
17.66
Excluding Plague :-
1896
19.79
1901
19-03
1897
19.05
1902
20.32
1898
17.98
Average
1903
15.10
Average
19.31
17.62
1899
18-65
1904
16-79
1900
21.10
1905
16.89
The total number of deaths amongst the Chinese community was 6,292 which gives ́a death-rate of 17:46 per 1,000 as compared with 17∙18 in 1904.
The deaths registered amongst the Non-Chinese community numbered 302 of which 251 were from the Civil population, 36 from the Army and 15 from the Navy.
This gives a death-rate for the Non-Chinese community of 17·08.
The nationalities of the deceased were as follows:-British 89, Indian 77, Portuguese 56, German 16, Japanese 13, American 11, Malay 6, French 6, Philippino 4, Italian 3, Swedish 3, Swiss, Jewish and Austrian 2 each; Irish, Dutch, Austrian, New-Zealander, Norwegian, Persian, Arabian, Danish, Turkish, Eurasian 1 each, and of unknown nationality 2.
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