Sessional_Paper_1907 — Page 656

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10,844 adult adult females, with 9,278 children under the age of 15 years. The percentage of adult Chinese females to adult males in the Colony is approximately as follows :—

City of Victoria

Villages of Aberdeen, Stanley, Shaukiwan and Pokfulam. 31% Old Kowloon

31%

33.5%

28%

30%

24%

In 1901 the percentages were:

City of Victoria..

Hongkong villages

Old Kowloon

The number of Chinese in New Kowloon is 17,836. In 1901 the result of the house to house visitation by the Police gave the number as 17,243. The latter included however about 1,100 inhabitants of 7 villages, which are now in the Sai Kung district of the New Territories, and which were therefore not enumerated at the present Census. For the pur- poses of comparison the increase over 1901 is about 1,700. In New Kowloon the bulk of the population is rural and the percentage of adult females to adult males is about 45.7.

19. Table IX shows the distribution of the Chinese population of the City of Victoria according to Registration Districts, and Table X the population of the ten Health Districts. In Kennedy Town and Shektongtsui there is a decrease of 1,820. An increase over the 1901 figures was hardly to be expected as between that year and 1897 the population had risen from 3,581 to 11,032. When the present Census was taken, there were still many large blocks of new buildings unoccupied, designed principally to accommodate the people who have been forced to leave Possession Street, Lower Lascar Row and Wa Lane, owing to the closing up of the disorderly houses in that locality. Most of the large Chinese Restaurants in the latter neighbourhood have also removed to Shektongtsui. There is a further increase of 4,521 in the population of Saiyingpun. That of Taipingshan remains practically stationary. This is partially accounted for by the changes in Possession Street and the neighbourhood, to which I have alluded above. There are 2,067 fewer Chinese in Sheung Wan than there were in 1901. This is due probably to dullness of business, as there are a good many empty houses there. The population of the Chung Wan District, which showed an increase of 15,047 in 1901, has decreased since the latter year by 2,652. This decrease is all the more marked because the new 4 storey buildings in Connaught Road have all been completed and occupied since 1901, while many Chinese shops have set up in Queen's Road Central in the place of European Firms, which have moved into new premises on the Reclamation between the new Post Office site and the Hongkong Club. It must be remembered however that extensive resumptions of insanitary properties have been carried out by the Government during the past 3 years, and the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance of 1903 increased the floor area per head from 30 to 50 square feet. Districts Nos. VII & VIII (Ha Wan and Wanchai) contain 25,892 inhabitants, an increase of 2,405. This is probably due to the Naval Yard Extension, as the Chinese like to live close to their work. In Bowrington and Sokonpo there is a decrease of 4,332. The total decrease in the ten Registration Districts is actually 3.199, but in 1901 the whole Chinese population of Victoria was included, while on the present occasion I have left out 1,432 Chinese living in places within the City limits which do not fall within any of the Registration Districts. For the the purposes of com- parison, therefore, the decrease since 1901 is 1,767 for the whole City.

20. The European and American population of Victoria (excluding Portuguese) is 3,244 as compared with 2,738 in 1901. The Portuguese numbers remain stationary, while there is small increase of 150 in the number of Indians. There is no change worth recording in the numbers of the rest of the Non-Chinese races (including Eurasians). These now num- ber 1,284 persons.

The increase in the European and American community in Victoria is 506 since 1901. Between 1897 and 1901 the increase was 298. A number of new houses have been completed on the higher levels of the City, principally in Conduit and MacDonnell Roads. Europeans continue to be displaced by Chinese and others in the residential quarters in the neighbour- hood of Robinson Road and Caine Road, and move either into the higher levels or Kowloon.

21. There are 574 Europeans and Americans living on the Peak, as compared with 413 in 1901, and 376 in 1897. There is little room for further expansion as nearly all the available sites have been built upon. The children below the age of 15 years now number 136, an increase of 31 since the last Census. The Chinese number 1,648, most of whom are domestic servants.