ENG-1948 — Page 25

some

pendents, increased to about 12,000. This total includes 7,000 British subjects from the United Kingdom and the Dominions, about 3,000 British subjects of Portuguese race In addition there were and 2,037 aliens permanently resident. some 1,500 aliens temporarily resident.

On the basis of the distribution of the population found in the 1931 census, the population of the City of Victoria and the Peak is estimated at about 767,000; while that of Kowloon and New Kowloon is estimated at 547,000. On the same basis the population of the New Territories is estimated at about 209,000, and the population afloat is estimated at 147,000, but it is probable that the proportionate distribution of the two latter groups has changed, and that the population of the New Territories exceeds the estimate.

Thus

The population of the New Territories is composed of Cantonese and Hakka, with a sprinkling of Hoklo. The farmers are the Cantonese, mainly settled, some families for several hundred years, in the comparatively fertile western plains, and the Hakka, whose incursion into the more difficult hilly land of the eastern peninsulas is said to have started about two hundred years ago and may not have finished yet. Generally speaking, the Hakka appear to have occupied any potentially arable land disregarded by the Cantonese. long fingers of Hakka penetration have been extended from the eastern peninsulas over passes down into the south-west of the mainland, and out on to the islands. The two sections main- tain excellent relations, and although Hakka help Hakka more noticeably than Cantonese help Cantonese, it is remarkable that in their penetration the Hakka have been partly guided by existing Cantonese settlement. Thus, for instance, one of the biggest New Territories villages, Wang Toi Shan, to the north- west of Taimoshan, is populated chiefly by Hakka of the Tang clan, who undoubtedly chose that locality because of the existing prodominant influence of the Cantonese Tang.

There are few exceptions to the rule that Cantonese and Hakka in the New Territories do not intermarry.

There are a few recent settlements which include both Cantonese and Hakka, but in such cases the families live distinctly, and normally a village is either clearly Cantonese or Hakka. There are how- ever certain well defined exceptions, notably the villages of Ting Kok and Ping Shan Tsai in the Taipo area, whose inhabitants speak Cantonese and Hakka almost bilingually. These villages are nicknamed "pun kong cham" the half filled pitcher.

Certain occupations are exclusively Cantonese or Hakka;

17