Sessional_Paper_1907 — Page 785

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to cubicles which were introduced by the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903. the 1901 Census the proportion of Chinese females to males in the City was 35-3 to 100, whereas at the 1906 Census the figures show a proportion of 38-6 females to every 100 males.

The

The population of the Colony has been overestimated during the past few years, owing to the fact that it was impossible to accurately guage the influence of the circumstances mentioned above in restraining the rapid growth which was so marked a feature of the inter-censal period 1896-1901; the usual rule was therefore followed of calculating the estimated population from the figures obtained at the two most recent censuses. addition however of 15,010 persons to the Chinese population and of 2,982 to the Non- Chinese civil population (exclusive of the New Territories) within a period of less than six years (January 1901 to November 1906), is sufficient evidence of the continued progress of the Colony.

The estimated population to the middle of 1906 is as follows:

Non-Chinese Civil Community,...

Chinese :-

City of Victoria (including Peak and Stonecutters' Island), Villages of Hongkong,

Old Kowloon,

12,174

...

175,070

16,745

31,600

New Kowloon,

17,790

Floating population,

12,550

Mercantile Marine,

2,375

Total Chinese Population,

306,130

Army (average strength), .

3,959

Navy (census figure),

4,698

Total Population of the Colony

(exclusive of New Territories), f

326,961

The Chinese population of the New Territories is estimated at 85,011.

The average strength of troops in Garrison during 1906 was 95 British Officers and 1,525 British N. C. O.s and men with 37 Indian Officers and 1,912 Indian N. C. O.s and men, and 65 men of the Chinese Royal Engineers. There were also 267 British women and children, and 58 Indian women and children, making a total of 325.

The average strength of the British fleet was as follows:-Europeans permanently in the Colony 200, Europeans temporarily in the Colony 5,000, Chinese permanently in the Colony 150, Chinese temporarily in the Colony 120-making a total of 5,470).

The Chinese boat population (exclusive of the New Territories), is estimated for 1906'as 42,550 and the number of boats belonging to the Port enumerated at the Census taken in November, 1906, is as follows:--

Passenger boats,............. Cargo boats,

Stenin-launches,

Lighters,

Harbour boats,

Fishing boats, Trading junks,

1,358

1,401

215

50

691

.2,480

264

6,459

The population of the Colony is primarily divided into Chinese and Non-Chinese. The Non-Chinese comprised at the Census a white population of 12,925 of whom 6,085 are civil- ians while 4,429 belong to the Navy and 2,411 to the Army. The coloured races (Non- Chinese) number 8,500 and include East Indians, Asiatic Portuguese, Japanese, Filipinos, Malays, Africans, Persians and a few others.

The Civil population is essentially a male adult one. At the last census (1906) the proportion of males was 701 per cent of the total civil population; at the 1901 Census the proportion was 72.6 per cent., so there has been an increase in the proportion of females during the past few years.