Sessional_Paper_1939 — Page 111

107

REPORT ON LABOUR AND

—

LABOUR CONDITIONS

IN HONG

KONG.

by

Mr. H. R. Butters, Labour Officer.

General Introduction.

1. The Colony of Hong Kong is situated between latitude 22° 9′ N. and 22° 37′ N. and longitude 113° 52′ E. and 114° 30′ E.* It consists of the island of Hong Kong (32 square miles) and, across the harbour from the City of Victoria, a stretch of mainland to the North including the peninsula of Kowloon, New Kowloon (together 18.7 square miles) and the New Territories to which belongs a number of islands, one of which, Lan Tau, is larger than the island of Hong Kong and is about as sparsely populated as Hong Kong was when ceded to Britain in 1841. The total area of land is about 391 square miles (249,885 acres), mostly hills; only 46,080 acres are cultivated.

2. Hong Kong is geographically a part of China and is connected with Canton by a railway, a road of sorts opened in the emergency of 1937, when the Colony's road system was connected with that of Kwangtung by a bridge over the Sham Chum river, and several steamship lines.

3. The climate is hot and humid in summer and dry and cool in winter with a range of temperature from about 95° F. to 40° F. The average rainfall is 85 inches. Arable land is seldom out of cultivation while in the towns the climate enables a portion of the population (the "street sleepers") to dispense with hous- ing accommodation during most of the year, and a labourer's summer clothing may consist of a pair of cotton trousers with or without a singlet.

4. The population according to the Census to 1931 was 849,751 and on the basis of the increase during the previous decade is estimated

is estimated at 1,006,982 in 1937. To this arithmetical increase must be added some quarter to half million refugees from the present hostilities in China.

5. The population in 1931 was distributed as follows:

Island of Hong Kong

Kowloon Peninsula

New Territories

Population afloat

Males.

Females.

Total.

247,967

162,954 410,921

146,618

118,057 246,675

50,147

48,758

98,905

47,126

28,124

75,250

491,858

357,893

849,751

Of these nearly 97% were Chinese. Of the civil population 97.7 were Chinese.

6. The population of the New Territories is a settled population evenly divided into males and females living in village communities and supported mainly by primitive rice cultivation. The bulk of the remainder is concentrated in the urban area of Hong Kong island, including the City of Victoriat built on the lower hill slopes and reclamations on the nothern shore, and in Kowloon, where the foot- hills have been levelled.

* Vide_section 39 of the Interpretation Ordinance No. 31 of 1911. The figures given yearly in the Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of the Colony of Hong Kong appear to refer to Hong Kong prior to the lease of the New Territories in 1898.

The "City of Victoria" or "Victoria" is never so described in common speech but as “Hong Kong.

Hereafter in this Report where "Hong Kong" is not obviously used to describe the Colony as a whole it will mean Hong Kong island, and in particular the urban portion thereof.