Sessional_Paper_1931 — Page 109

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The following tables give these comparative figures

(a) Island of Hong Kong.

Table 3.

ISLAND OF HONG KONG.

1931

1921

FORMER HEALTH DISTRICTS

Increase

Males

Females Total

Males

Females

Total

North Point

7,368

5,150 12,518

2,304

804

3,108

9,410

New Reclamation, Praya

East

4,603

3,718

8,321

8,321

No. 1. Causeway Bay,

Bowrington and

Wongneichong

13,852

18,774 27,126

9,977

8,162

18,139

8,987

IA & 2A Wanchai

16,824

2. Wanchai

18,566

12,922 14,441 33,007

29,746

16,643

10,318

26,956

2,790

16,291

11,356

27,647

5,360

Decrease

3. Upper Levels

6,196

4. Central

29,782

5,896 16,014

12,092

8,316

6,962

15,278

3,186

45,746 28,108

15,728

43,936

1,910

5. Central

19,348

10,735

30,088

18,896

11,169

30,065

18

6. Sheung Wan and

Decrease

Taipingshan

18,776

8,588 27,364

20,103

8,368

28,471

1,107

7. Sheung Wan and

Taipingshan

20,696

9,168 29,864

19,182

9,478

28,660

1,204

8. Salyingpun-North

of G.C.H.

20,715

7,315

28,030

19,748

7,103 26,851

1,179

9. Sairingpun

26,639

19,683

46,322

26,992

16,267

43,259

3,063

10. West Point

23,125

21,339

44,464

16,207

12,195

Hill District (Peak)

28,402

16,062

2,889

1,030

3,419

1,994

607

2,601

818

Pokfulam

1,346

947

2,293

1,132

652

1,784

509

Aberdeen & Aplichau

3,473

2,152

5,625

2,548

1,869

3,917

1,708

Hong Kong Villages (other)

2,014

1,223

3,237

784

289

1,073

2,164

Shaukiwan

11,087

8,859 19,946

11,860

5,494

17,354

2,592

+ 66,095

Totals

246,249

162,954 409,203 221,085 126,316

347,401

4,293

61,802

The total increase in the Island of Hong Kong amounts to 61,802 persons or 17.79% on the figures for 1921. This is considerably less than the increase in the previous decade, which was 103,078 or 42.19% on the figures for 1911. It is difficult to give any satisfactory explanation of this relatively smaller increase in Hong Kong and, as will be seen later, a very much larger increase in the Kowloon Peninsula, except in very general terms.

There are no grounds for suggesting that the enumeration was better done in Kowloon than in Hong Kong and that there would be fewer omissions on that account. The system adopted in carrying out the enumeration was the same in both cases; the organisation was identical and might be expected to have functioned better on the Island than in Kowloon; so that if the figures for one area are as nearly correct as it is possible to obtain, the same is true of the other area.

Some of the central districts in Hong Kong are grossly overcrowded and have no doubt reached a saturation point. Rents are high in the centre of the town where the land has been subject to considerable speculation since the early days of the Colony and this, of course, is one of the causes of overcrowding. The land is so valuable that more and more is being devoted to business premises which house much fewer people, but obtain higher rents than tenement flats. There is room for development elsewhere in Hong Kong but only, it would appear, at greater distances from the business centres than is the case in Kowloon. It is likely also that preference is being shown to the modern ferro-concrete type of building recently erected in Kowloon, with more open space around it, over the old wooden building which still predominates in Hong Kong and is in many cases dark, dirty, rat-infested, and wholly surrounded by other buildings.