The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-09-20

PLANTATION. The conditions and environ
like those to which we are accustomed
that 1T is unsafe to take anything for
granted. Amid certain fundamental
unities the life of the Chinese is full
of bewildering and inexplicable variety.
No matter how long one may have lived
in China, there is always just as much
as ever that he never before heard of,
but which everyone is supposed to have
known by intuition. The Oldest resi-
dent is student like the rest.
THE traveller in China, constantly
surrounded by countless towns and
hamlets, naturally thirsts to know in a
general way the population of the re-
gion which he is traversing. Should he
venture, however. to ask any one the
number Of people in a city, or the dis
trict which ii governs, he would get no
other information than that there are
not a few or who knows?' Almost
any intelligent person could tell ap-
psoximately how many villages there
are in his own county, but as some of
them are large and some small, and as
Chinese. like other orientals, care alb
solutely nothing for statistics, and have
the crudest notion of what we mean
by an average, one is none the wiser
for their information.
1T appears to be well settled that no
real dependence can be placed upon the
Chinese official returns, yet they are
the only basis upon which rational esti-
mates can be based, and therefore have
a certain value. So far as we are
aware, efforts to come at the real popu-
lation per square mile have generally
proceeded from such extensive units as
provinces, or at least procedures, the
foundation and superstructure being
alike mere pagoda of guesses.
s1vcs n
in certain district to make a more
exact computation of the population OF
a very limited area, as a sort of unit
of measure. For this purpose a circle
/ was taken, the radius of which was
twenty H. the foreign residence being
I at the center. A list was drawn up OF
every village having received famine
relief in the year 1873. so that ii was
not difficult to make proximate CUES:
at the average number of families
The villages were $50 in number, and
the average size was taken as eighty
families, which, reckoning five persons
10 the family gave a total of $4,000 per.
sons. Allowing six miles to be the
equivalent of twenty Ill, the popula.
ton of the square mile would be 531
about the same as the kingdom of Bel
GUM (the most densely populated
country in Europe), which had in 1879
an average Of only 534 to the squar,
mile.
"At a distance OF a few miles be
yond this circle there is a tract called
the Thirteen Villages because that 4
the number within a distance of fiv,
IL This shows that the particular re
gion in which this estimate was mad
happens to be an unfavorable one 70
the purpose, as a considerable portion
of 1t is waste owing to an old bed o
the Yellow river, which has devastated
Ia - - 1T Il
villages. There is also a water cours
leading from the Grand Canal to tn
sea, long depression much below tn
general average, thinly occupied by vii
lagos, because it is liable to serious in
undation.
For these reasons 1t seemed desira
bic to make a new count in bette
spot, and for this purpose a district wa
chosen, situated about ninety III cas-
of the sub-prefecture of Lin Ching, t
which il belongs. The area taken wa
only half the size of the former, and IL
stead of merely estimating the averag
population Of the villages the actua
number of families in each was taken
so far as this number is known to tn
natives. The man who prepared tn
village map of the area is a native O
the central village, and a person o
excellent sense lie put the population
in every case somewhat below the pop
ular estimate, so as to be certainl
within bounds. The number of person
to a family was still taken at five
though, as he pointed out, thfs is a to
tally inadequate allowance. Man
families live and have all things i
common. and are, therefore, counted a
one, although as in the case of this par
ucular individual. the family ma
consist Of some twenty persons. To tn
traveller the villages appear to be bot
large and thiclIy clustered, and tn
enumeration shows this to be the cas-
Within a radius Of ten IL (three miles
! there are sixty-four villages, the small
! est having thirty families and III
, largest more than 1000 while the aver
age is 1sS families. The total numbe
of families is 1000, and the total nun
, Der Of persons, at Eve to the famfl,
1 is 6o,200 or more than double the est
= mate for the region with twice tn
e diameter. This gives a population
:, 1z9 TO the square mile.
80 Tar as appearances go, there al
: thousands Of square miles in southeI
and central Chih-li, western and soutl
western Shantung and northern H,
G nan, where the villages are as thick
= in this one tract, 1.-THE contents Of whic
r. We arc thus able approximately
, compute. But for the plain of mort
i, China as whole it is probable that
y would be found to be more reasonab
= 10 estimate 500 persons to the squa
2 mile for the more sparseiy settled di
tricts, and from 1000 TO 1900 for Il
more thickly settled regions. In az
case vivid impression is thus game
Of the enormous number Of human b
ings crowded into these fertile and hi
toric plains, and also of the almost i
guDera Die difficulties i'm fha x-av IF ,