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Accuracy.-Careful instructions were given to the enumerators to serve a schedule on every cubicle in separate occupation; whole families would probably be omitted if this instruction were not complied with, since the tenant of the whole flat would not bother about getting the details from the subtenants of the separate cubicles. In the majority of cases this instruction was carried out properly, but there must have been some leakage in cases where the instruction was not obeyed. A discussion held by the Sanitary Board shortly before the Census on the question of overcrowding undoubtedly tended to give rise in the congested areas to a conviction that it would be highly injudicious to record all the inmates in some crowded tenements; while the prevalence of a widespread belief amongst Chinese women of the middle and lower classes in the alleged inhuman designs of the Public Works Department on infantile life undoubtedly affected the number of children of both sexes recorded between the ages of 4 and 10. The rumour referred to is in short that the Government intended to build a huge bridge across the harbour to Kowloon resting on 99 piers, and that a certain number of young children of both sexes were required to be buried alive under the foundations of each pier in order to ensure its stability. The numbers increased as the rumours grew, and the highest number which came to my notice was 300 of each sex, while the final embellishment to the tale was the addition of an unfixed number of pregnant women. In the perverted view of the frightened mothers the very object of the Census was to enable the Govern- ment to make a suitable choice of its victims. Enquiries made showed that the story had gained wide credence and caused no little alarm throughout Hongkong and Kowloon, but did not affect the floating population. In the Central District it was reported to me that middleclass mothers went personally in the middle of the morning to rescue their younger children from school, while in Wanchai and Shaukeiwan children were locked up for days and not allowed to go out of doors. The rumour however quickly vanished under the outspoken comments of the enlightened Chinese Press, and the enumerators found no difficulty in collecting the schedules. However the following figures are suggestive that many young children were not recorded; increase over 1911 for children under 10- 65 13 per cent, increase over 1911 for all women between 20 and 45, 75-05 per cent, the increase of children being less than that of women of child-bearing age.

Estimate of normal population.-I estimate that the normal population of the Colony is greater than the figures of the Census by the following numbers:--

Absent on holiday,

Unemployed returned to the country temporarily,

Absence of business men from China,

Decrease of emigrants,

Absence of family visitors,

Loss due to omissions from various causes,

..... 10,000

2,000

4,000

2,000

2,000

10,000

30,000

Thus the normal population would be in the neighbourhood of 660,000, and as soon as business becomes brisk again this figure must be somewhat increased. This figure approximates to the estimate of the Sanitary Department which was 648,000. But at no time were there any grounds for holding the opinion that the population was in the neighbourhood of one million, as was at one time alleged. The number of floors in Hongkong and Kowloon occupied by Chinese has increased in the last 10 years by 7,117 which at 15 persons per floor, a fairly high average, affords accommodation for 106,755 out of a total increase of 157,398 in the Chinese Urban population, thus leaving a large portion of the increase to find accommodation in houses already fully occupied in 1911.

Section II.-The Non-Chinese Population.

(Tables III to VIII.)

1. The number of non-Chinese excluding the Mercantile Marine has increased from 11,225 to 12,856. In 1911 the non-Chinese were classified by race, while the correspond- ing classification in the present Census is by nationality. A comparison is therefore some- what difficult. Japanese have increased from 958 to 1,585, citizens of the U.S.A. from 295 to 470, Portuguese (including British subjects) from 2,558 to 2,609, British nationals born in India from 1,414 to 1,474, British nationals born in Europe, America and Australia from 2,236 to 3,110.