ENG-1964 — Page 282

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GEOGRAPHY AND POPULATION

19,748 in 1963. These figures yield for 1964 a crude birth rate of 29.4 per mille and a crude death rate of 4.9 per mille, on a mid-year population of 3,692,200.

The total number, excluding transients, claiming, at the time of the 1961 census, to originate from Commonwealth countries outside Hong Kong was 33,140 of whom 27,936 resided in the urban area. The census questions did not include nationality but the figure provided by the Aliens' Registration Office for non-Chinese alien residents (excluding visitors staying for periods less than three months and excluding children under 16 years old) at the end of 1964 totalled 12,592 of whom the largest groups were American (3,403), Portuguese (2,138), Japanese (1,578), Filipino (656), Dutch (485), French (400), Italian (396) and German (460).

Approximately half of the urban population is now of Hong Kong birth. Most of these and the greater part of the immigrant population originated from Kwangtung province. Other elements in the urban population include a Fukien community and numbers of overseas Chinese whose families originally came from Kwangtung and Fukien.

The indigenous population of the New Territories consists of four main groups-Cantonese, Hakka, Tanka, and Hoklo. They show differences in physical appearance, dress, organization, and customs. The Cantonese and Hakka groups are traditionally land-dwellers whereas the Tanka and Hoklo groups are traditionally boat-dwellers. The latter two are probably of non-Chinese origin but all these groups now regard themselves as Chinese. The usual village community consists of a single clan but two and three clan villages are common and multi-clan villages also occur. By custom, men are compelled to marry outside their own clan but it is believed that no intermarriage occurs between land and boat-dwellers.

The Cantonese who form the majority community occupy the best part of the two principal plains in the north-western section of the New Territories and own a good deal of the most fertile valley land in other areas. The oldest villages, those of the Tang clan in Yuen Long District, have a history of continuous settlement since the late eleventh century. The Hakka (this is their own word for themselves, meaning strangers) began to enter this region at about the same time as the first Cantonese or possibly even before. The latter were the more successful settlers and, in areas where