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constituting the only stable portion of the population of the Colony, who can be said to be domiciled in the strict sense of the term. 3,497 are shown as born in the neighbouring district of San On against 1,779, the increase is mostly amongst males and is undoubted- ly to be ascribed to the Tsing Ming festival: those born in Hongkong are 1,434 against 2,393 in 1911, the decrease being entirely among females. A considerable number of wives come from San On and Hongkong. The numbers of natives of other districts in China remain practically unchanged.

12. Education.-Males able to read and write have increased by 3,449, females by 439. The female part of the population still remains almost wholly uneducated, only 674 being educated. The effect of the increase in the number of vernacular schools is just becoming apparent in the case of the males. The Northern District is a far more pro- mising field for elementary education than Hongkong owing to the far greater stability of the population. In Hongkong itself very few of the children born ever remain to marry and settle down permanently.

13. Occupations.-With the exception of a few small shopkeepers and the fishermen, the whole of the permanent part of the population is engaged in agriculture, children going to work in the fields as soon as they can walk. Though comparatively few women are returned as farmers, it must be understood that in their spare time they perform the same work in the fields as the men.

The majority of males given in other categories than agriculture are probably those who have returned to their native villages for the Tsing Ming festival.

A large number of females are reported as engaged in needlework, but this occupa- tion should in most cases be interpreted as domestic duties, and as denoting those who do not as a rule take any part in agriculture.

Several attempts have been made to open mines in the Northern district, but none with any success, and so far I am aware, none are being worked at present.

14. Child Labour.--No attempt has been made to catalogue the occupations of children. But the employment of children in the many light tasks which agriculture affords is universal from a very tender age. Children of both sexes also perform a large amount of work on fishing craft and sampans, often supplying the sole motive power, when the wind fails, the mother being at the tiller.

15. Muitsai-Muitsai number only 158 in all. Poverty and the common practice of purchasing a small girl (sanpotsai) as prospective bride to be brought up in the family of the future husband, render the demand for their services very small. Moreover the early marriage of her sons provides the New Territories mother with an effective and submissive substitute in the form of her daughter-in-law, who as a general rule resides. with the husband's parents for many years after marriage.

Section IV.-Urban Population.

(Tables XIX to XXIII).

1: Ages: Birthrate.-The age tables have been adjusted to the European method of reckoning, but it is probable that some Chinese gave the age of children of one year according to the English method; this would make the adjusted figures for under one year slightly too high, and those for under two slightly too low. After taking various factors into consideration, I calculate the birthrate to be about 23 per thousand, a high figure considering that males outnumber females by 63 to 37. Based on the figures given for infantile mortality in the report of the Medical Officer of Health for 1920, the death rate of infants under one year works out at 296 per thousand births, a figure which almost agrees with the loss shown in the age table which works out at 298.. In the above calculations it is taken for granted that for all practical purposes emigra- tion is balanced by immigration. But during 1920 only 2,113 Chinese births were actually registered, two males being registered to every one female. The use of such figures as these apart from the context in comparison with those for infantile deaths has. led to grossly exaggerated statements about infantile mortality in the Colony.