Sessional_Paper_1921 — Page 155

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HONGKONG.

REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF THE COLONY FOR 1921.

No.

15

1921

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor, 15th December, 1921.

1. The decennial Census of the Civil population of the Colony was taken in the Island of Hongkong and Kowloon on the night of April 24th, and in the New Territories between March 24th and April 24th, the Floating Population being enumerated between April 23rd and 26th. These dates were selected so as to appoximate as nearly as possible to the date originally appointed for the Census of the United Kingdom.

2. The total population was found to be 625,166, an increase of 168,427 or 36·87 per cent on the figures for 1911, the greatest relative increase ever recorded for the Colony. The bulk of the increase has taken place in the City of Victoria and Kowloon ; the Northern District of the New Territories shows a very slight decrease, while the Southern District shows a slight increase.

3. The work of preparation was commenced on January 20th and the final schedule was approved on March 3rd. This left a very short time to prepare the necessary trans- lations in Chinese, and get the work of printing executed in time to commence work in the New Territories on March 24th.

4. The schedule adopted was simpler than in 1911, questions as to language, religion and infirmities being omitted. Proposed columns for "race" and "industry were excised from the final draft, hence it was impossible to classify the cosmopolitan non-Chinese population except by nationality, thus Javanese, Malays and Annamites had to be included with Europeans from their respective Countries. The omission of the column for industry in which employed' has rendered the compilation of the table of occupations extremely laborious and the result not very satisfactory, because the Home classification, which presupposes such a column, was ordered to be used for the first time in the Colony.

5. The Census of the City of Victoria, Shaukeiwan and Kowloon was taken under my direct supervision, the outlying districts of Hongkong and Kowloon, the New Territories and the Floating Population by the Police under the supervision of Mr. C. G. Perdue, Assistant Superintendent of Police, who was temporarily detached for this duty. The aim kept in view with reference to the part of the work undertaken by the Police, was to relieve them of all work other than supervision. The District Watchmen's Committee kindly placed the bulk of their men at my disposal, and they proved of considerable assistance. Each Chinese Watchman engaged was in charge of two sections: they helped to clear up misunderstandings and keep a check on the enumerators. The Naval and Military authorities kindly co-operated in the distribution and collection of schedules for civilians living in quarters under their control.

6. The majority of the schedules were collected and returned to the office within 10 days, and the preliminary report was ready by May 12th. The schedules as a whole were filled up carefully, and contained very few errors even in the poorer parts of the Colony, and these mostly of a trifling nature. The column for occupation was however in very many cases filled up without sufficient preciseness.

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