ESTIMATED CHINESE POPULATION OF THE SEVERAL PORTS AND OF THE PREFECTURES AND PROVINCES IN WHICH THEY ARE SITUATED.* * 'Returns of Trade and Trade Reports,' Imperial Maritime Customs, 1907. + Estimated by Sir A. Hosie (1904) at 45,000,000. "Nothing has been done in the last few years, since the administrative reform of the Empire has begun, looking to the ascertainment of the population of the Empire. A few counts of the population of certain cities have been made. Though in all likelihood inaccurate, they are of considerable interest in view of the paucity of data we possess. In the early part of last year the Ministry of Domestic Affairs or Home Office (Min-cheng Pu) reported that the number of families in Peking was 123,790. Taking as an average per household of 5.5 head, it gives 680,845, which, I think, is a pretty close approximation to the truth. A census was also made in 1907 of the city of Swatow. The result is curious. It is 21,782 males and 5,185 females, children included, living in 4,875 homes (5.4 head per home). In the case of the city of Mukden an official count of the population was made in 1907. It gave 158,132, of which three-fifths were males. "As bearing on the subject generally, it is of interest to note that in August, 1907, the Japanese authorities in Korea had a census made of the people. It gave 2,233,087 houses with a population of 10,381,680,4.15 heads to the home. "At the present time another census of Peking is being taken. I am endeavoring to ascertain the method followed, and will let you know concerning it. . . . "I shall be very glad at any time if I can be of any assistance whatsoever in any researches you may wish to make concerning the population of China or Eastern Asia, which is, as you say, an unsolved problem of very great interest and importance." Writing about a month later, Mr. Rockhill submits the following table, and says in regard to it: "Since writing you last month, the Chinese 'Government Official Gazette' has published a census taken this year of the population of Peking, exclusive of suburbs. The 'family,' I think, should be counted at 5.5 heads, though some persons I have recently consulted think it may be, in the case of Peking, as high as 8.0. In view of the excessive infantile mortality here (some European medical men I have spoken to say it is probably as high as 50 per cent.), I think 5.5 is a fair average. This gives us 693,044 persons. Sacharoff gave the population of Peking within the walls, in 1845, as 1,648,814,-a figure probably 50 per cent. in excess of the truth." CENSUS OF FAMILIES IN PEKING. COMPILED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF INTERIOR AFTER THE DIVISION INTO THE PRESENT POLICE DISTRICTS. Mr. Rockhill also enclosed an official statement of School Statistics for the City of Peking. The table is too long to reproduce in its entirety, but it seems worth while to give the summary for the whole city, though it does not bear directly upon the question under discussion. Total of the Inner and Outer Cities: It would appear from these figures that the schools of Peking are not overcrowded and that the teachers are not overworked. This table is certainly a sad commentary on the condition of education in China, even if the population of Peking is only 693,044, as Mr. Rockhill states, rather than the million and one-half or more ordinarily given. C. W. D. AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION. NEW SERIES, No. 85 MARCH, 1909. STATE PENSIONS AND ANNUITIES IN OLD AGE. BY FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN. State pensions in old age are being widely discussed in this country, and foreign experiments and results are cited to prove that in Massachusetts, New York, and other states, the time has come for a more systematic financial provision for support in old age. While the literature of the subject is considerable, there is no consensus of qualified opinion as to the best policy which should be adopted to carry into effect so farreaching a scheme of radical social reform. In essence the whole problem is one of taxation, for, however much the facts may be obscured by sentimental utterances, the money necessary for any additional public support of the aged must be raised by taxation, since there are no other sources of income available to the state. Mr. William H. Lecky has very properly called attention to the fact, in one of his last contributions to English literature, that "there is a marked and increasing tendency to meet all the various exigencies of society, as they arise, by state aid, resting on compulsory taxation," and with equal clearness he has stated some of the first principles of old age pension agitation, as follows: "I can hardly conceive anything more certain to discourage thrift and to sap the robuster qualities of the English people, than that the belief should grow up among the whole working population, including the most industrious, the most respectable, and the most independent, that they should look forward to the state, and not to their own exertions, to support them in their old age." In reply it is ar |