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Show LATEST CENSUS OF CHINA. China has always been the perplexity of tho Western world. This relates not only to her people, thoir tendencies and their methods of life, but to their ways of doing business, both personal and public. One would naturally suppose that an Empire with the power supposed to adhere in the Emperor and his administrators, admin-istrators, would be able to take a census of the population that would be reasonably reason-ably tru8tworlhr. Accordingly, not long ago,, when it was given out that a recent re-cent census had shown the population of China to bo upwards of 500,000,000, thero was a disposition to accept the figure as approximately true. But now comes the Hon.- William J. Calhoun, American .Minister to China, Bending the Department of State a census report prepared by Rowland P. Tchuey, a stu-dent stu-dent interpreter at Peking, on the results re-sults of an enumeration of the popula tion of the Chinese Empire, which was completed in January last by the Chinese Chi-nese Board of the Interior. This census puts the population of tho entire Empire Em-pire at 329,542,000, or but little more than that of Iudia. The population of "the city of Peking is returned" as 1,0.17,-209, 1,0.17,-209, and that of the metropolitan district dis-trict outside of Peking, neither of which is included in the census of China proper for some occult or unknown reason, as 4,654,219. But these figures cannot be construed as other than mere approximations,, approxi-mations,, since there was ho attempt to enumerate the individuals of the Em: pire, but only the families or households. house-holds. Each household was' supposed to consist of five person's. The number of households or families in the Empire is put at 59,S24,9is', distributed as follows; fol-lows; China proper OS provinces) 56,312,256 Metropolitan' district (Shun TMen Fu. Including Peklnp)'. ' S31.26C Manchuria (FenKtlcn. KIrJn, and Hcllunpchlanfr) .... 1.7S0.308 Hslnchlanjr ' (the Northwest Province) 453.477, Manchu military organization. . 309.151 Dependencies (exclusive of Tibet)- ; 13S.460 Thi6 gives the following result in number of inhabitants: China proper 304,003,000 Metropolitan district 5.671,000 .Manchuria 14,917,000 Hsinchlanjr 2.491,000 Manchu military organization.. 1,700.000 Dependcnclea .... , 760.000 Total 329.542,000 The population of Tibet, which Is not Included In the foresolnpr, Is estimated at 6,500.000. The population as given by provinces compared with the alleged census of 1885 18 as follows: Provinces 1885 1910. Szechwan 71.100,000 ' 16.100.000 Shantung 36,500,000 29.600.000 Hupch 33,600.000 24,900.000 Kwanfftunpr 29,700,000 27.700.000 Klanpsl '.... 2 500,000 14.500.000 Fuklen 23,500.000 13.100,000 Honan 22,100,000 25.600.000 "Klangsu 21,300,000 17,300,000 Hunan 21,000,000 23,600,000 Anhwel 20,600,000 17.300,000 Chihill , 17,900,000 26,900,000 Yunnan 11700.000 8.500,000 Cheklanff 11.700,000 17,000,000 Shanal 10.S00.000 10.000.000 Kwelchow 7,700,000 11,300,000 Knnsii 5,400,000 5,000.000 Kwan&sl 5,100,000 6.500,000 Shensl 3,300.000 8,800,000 A number of former censuses, or attempts at-tempts at cenRuseB, have been reported from China. The results of these earlier ear-lier attempts at enumeration in China proper, made by the Chinese Board of Revenue, were as follows: 1761 census, 190,257,000; 18.12 census, 360,440,000; 1842 census, 413,021,000; 1882 census, 381,309,000; 1885 census 377,636,000. It looks to use as though the present census is about as little to bo depended upon as any, because, tho discrepancies between that and the census of 1S85 are too variable and too great. 'There is no reason to suppose that thero have been any such changes in tho population of tho provinces of China as would bo indicated by these comparative figures, Nor can we suppose that the world will be any better convinced now than it has 'been heretofore that .an accurate census of China has been taken. i |