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THE POPULATION OF HONGKONG.
The report of the Medical Officer of Health for 1899 gives some figures about the population of Hongkong. The Population of the Colony at the Census taken in 1891 was found to be 221,441 and at the Census taken in 1897 it was 248,880.
The following is the estimated population to the middle of 1899 :- Non-Chinese population...
8,915
Chinese Popula.
tion.
City of Victoria including Peak and Stonecutters" Island Villages of Hongkong and
Kowloon Floating Population
Army Navy
Total Chinese Population
168.260
40,530 31,700
243,490 3,520 3,385
Total Population of the colony 259,310 The Chinese boat population of the Colony has been estimated to the middle of the year to have been 34,700; this figure cannot, however, be relied upon as necessarily accurate, for owing to an error in the census returns for 1891 pointd out in the Annual Report for last year, a correct basis for calculating this populatien is wanting. It would appear, however, that there has been a steady increase in the floating population and at the census taken in 1897 it was found to number 33,275.
The number of boats licensed in 1898 was 10,150, and in 1897 was 9,954. ·
The population of the Colony is classified pri- marily into Chinese and Non-Chinese, the former being greatly in the majority. The Non- Chinese comprise a white population of 13.060 of whom 6,155 are civilians and the remainder belong to the Army or the Navy, The coloured races number 2,760 and comprise East Indians, Malays, Filipinos and a few Africans.
The white civilian population was shown at the 1897 census to consist of 2,374 British, 2.276 Portuguese, and a sprinkling of Americans, Ger- mans, Franch, and other Europeans.
The population is essentially a male adult one, as no less than 70.9 per cent. of the Chinese population and 58.6 per cent. of the Non-Chinese population are males, while more than half the population (55.9 per cent. of the Chinese and 52,6 per cent. of the Non-Chinese) are between the ages of 20 and 45, The proportion of Great Britain between these ages is only 33.8 per cent.
JAPANESE SAFETY MATCHES.
REPLY OF THE KOBE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
CANTON.
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT,]
Canton, 19th May.
THE BOMANJEE CASE.
With reference to the case of Mr. Bomanjee whose ten bales of cotton yarn were robbed about the end of April, several thieves have been arrested in Hoyuin, Kwangsi, by Lieutenant Chan Kum Cheong of the Sew Hing garrison. At the trial before the Ko-yew Magistrate it appeared from the evidence of Pang Ping Kai | and others that the cotton yarn has been sold to Ting Hing Lee and another shop in the Lo Ting district, and that the two shops have been seized and closed by order of the Magistrate. The shop owners in their petition alleged that they did not know anything of the case, that they purchased only four bales of the yarn with no idea that they were stolen goods, and that they were willing to surrender them, and as to the rest of the cargo, they did not know anything. The magistrate sent the case up to the Viceroy, upon which H.E, remarked interalia that the captain Pang Ping Kai had evidently conspired with the pirates to rob, that the magistrate has been very careful and painstaking in investigating this case, and that he hopes that the ringleader an his associates will be arrested, and the rest of the stolen property recovered.
A VISITOR GETS A SHOCK.
On the 17th ult. four or five foreign gentlemen went into the city with a guide to see the differ- ent places of interest; and at last when they visited the Nam Hoi Magistrate's Court one of them turned pale, and fainted, partly at the sight of the cruel tortures that he witnessed. and partly from the stifling heat and the ill smelling crowd in the close room.
The yamen runners and the usher quickly rendered their assistance. one procuring water, another tea. and another blowing some medicinal powder up his nose, and in a minute or two he recovered, and all went away in chairs to Shameen. A person of delicate and sensitive feelings should not run the risk of seeing spectacles.
A BOAT ACCIDENT.
A steam-launch, the Chon Wai, taking a wheel- boat fully laden with kerosine in tow from Hongkong on the night of the 14th ult.. passed the anchorage of the flower-boats, and run down a Shatiang boat manned by a family of seven persons, smashing her and throwing the occu- pants thereof into the water, two being drown- ed.
A WELL DESERVED PRIZE.
At the annual fête of the goddess of child- birth there was a large matshed erected at Honam in which were exhibited different effigies handsomely dressed in silk and satin, lamps and
chandeliers, flowers and birds, such as parrots, thrushes, robins, and many curios were shown. One young man brought a valuable cage with a thrush in it, accompanied by four soldiers, to the exhibition. The cage was of solid gold. inlaid with rubies, diamonds, and jade stones of the value of over $3,000, and he carried off the first prize, a silver medal and silk flags. About this time last year a Portuguese also brought a cage with a thrush in it of the value of over $1,000, and won the first prize.
According to the Osaka Asahi, the Kobe Chamber of Commerce has replied to the communication from the Hongkong Chamber, with regard to the dangerous character of Japanese "safety" matches. The Chamber denies that any dangerous materials are used in their manufacture. The attention of the Guild of Match Manufacturers was, however, called to the matter, and at a general meeting of the Guild the decision arrived at was that there was no better method of manufacturing than that now adopted. It was acknowledged that the matches might explode through friction with the nails used in fastening up the cases in which they are packed, and it was stated that more attention would be paid to the packing. The method of manufacture is also to be in-able men are known to have had their queues vestigated.
The Osaka journal learns from a gentleman who recently returned from a tour in Southern Asia that the chief defects in Japanese matches are that the sticks are very liable to break, and that as the boxes are very carelessly made, they are easily broken. Our contemporary says the Kobe Chronicle, need hardly have gone to the traveller in Southern Asia to discover these defects, as a little experimenting at home would soon have brought these facts to light. Another point is that the glowing ends of Japanese matches after the flame is extinguished are very apt to drop off-a very dangerous defect. That Japanese "safety" matches will often ignite upon very slight friction is a fact, also, of which most people are aware by practical experience.
cut.
A NEW RAPE OF THE LOCK.
MANILA.
[May 26, 1900.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
SPANISH REGISTRATION IN THE PHILIPPINES. -SPAIN ACCUSED OF REPUDIATING SPANISH COLONISTS.
Manila, 16th May. The eleventh day of April was the date agreed upon by the Paris Commission as the end of the period during which Spanish residents of the Philippines might register their intention of remaining Spaniards. As a matter of fact the ti ne has been extended, but the general public is but poorly informed on the subject. Up to the middle of April the office in Manila where such declarations are recorded was crowded with those who had procrastinated, leaving things until the last minute. Article 9 of the Paris Treaty of Peace provided that Spanish residents of former Spanish colonies should have one year's time in which to declare their adhesion to Spain, failing which they will adopt the nationality of the country where they reside. Some two thousand five hundred Spaniards have registered in Manila and there are still several hundred who would like to register, but cannot do so of account of certain clauses in the Peace Treaty.
The Spanish Commissioners in Paris last year introduced a clause which practically amounts to the repudiation of Spanish colonists. This clause says that Spaniards, born in Spain, and residing in her colonies, shall have the right to remain Spanish subjects. Consequently a man born of Spanish parents in the Colonies has no right to Spanish nationality and hundreds of Spaniards of this latter category have been denied permission to remain subjects of Spain and are to-day Filipinos and nothing
more.
This ruling of the Spanish Commissioners, that to be a Spaniard a man must be born in Spain is in direct contradiction to the Spanish Civil code, which says in Article 17, clause two,
The offspring of a Spanish father and mother, born outside of Spain, is a Spaniard." Why Spain wanted to repudiate Spaniards born in her colonies is hard to understand, unless it be that by so doing she has cleared her skirts of a tion of her action is generally accepted by the number of future prisoners and this interpreta- Spaniards themselves, As an instance, there are men in Manila born of Spanish parents in Puer- to Rico, Cuba, and out here who have been long in the Spanish Army and Civil service, some of them drawing pensions, while others would soon do so; but now for these men this keep and hope are gone, because they are no longer Spaniards, is of the same nationality as her husband; but Filipinos. Under the Spanish law a woman
hence a Spanish-born woman who has married a Filipino-born husband is a Filipino and not a Spaniard. This results in the loss, to a good many Spanish women out here, of certain small pensions from Spain which up to the present they have enjoyed, I am assured that the number of government pensioners which Spain gets rid of in her former colonies by this action is considerable, and that the yearly sum saved to the Crown thereby is large.
AMERICAN REGISTRATION.
The United States Government has supplied There is a secret queue-cutting society, com.
the printed blanks upon which these Spaniards registered their allegiance and the records have posed of rogues and vagabonds, who go about in
been taken under American supervision. Blanks the streets and back-lanes, and frequent the have been sent very generally throughout the theatre and joss-exhibitions, and secretly cut islands, but less than fifty have been used outside the queues of anybody who is unaware of of Manila. In Manila all the priests have re- their presence. A few well-dressed and respect-gistered, likewise all the Dominican, Recolleto, Franciscan and Augustinian friars; the Jesuits have not registered, it being their conten- tion that they are without nationality. The Spanish nurses and sisters of charity in and about Manila have officially declared their intentions of remaining Spanish and so have a large number of coastwise sailormen and steamer officers. In order that this regis tration may become binding and legal, it must be repeated at the office of the Spanish Consul in Manila, these are the records that are returned to Spain, while those taken under American supervision remain on file here. Among the colonial-born Spaniards who have been denied Spanish citizenship are many prominent and some wealthy men. Such a man, whose wife and children were all born in Spain, is about to take his family from here to Paris, and he
His Honour T. Sercombe Smith sat until nine o'clock at the Supreme Court on Monday night for the purpose of finishing the hearing of the armed robbery case at Causeway Bay, six men and one woman being charged with (1) rob- bery being armed; (2) receiving stolen goods. The jury found the fifth and sixth prisoners guilty on both the counts, and they were sen- tenced to seven years' imprisonment with hard labour, and to receive 20 strokes with the birch rod during the first week of their imprisonment. The first, second, third and fourth prisoners were found guilty on the second count only and sentenced to two years' hard labour. The woman was discharged.
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