Show C CHINESE ESE CE CENSUS SUS TO BE TAKEN The result of ot tho the census which has Just been ordered in an imperial edict issued at Pekin will be awaited with considerable interest It will be tho first time such an enumeration has been mado at the Instance and under tho the auspices of ot the tho national government government govern govern- ment and it should serve to establish establish lish as a tact fact what has heretofore been largely a matter of ot conjecture I Tho The current estimates as to the tho population population pop pop- of at China are arc merely guesswork guesswork guess guess- work and nd the divergence between them Is la extreme As long IonS ago a ag 1842 tho population of ot tho the eighteen provinces comprising China proper and of ot Formosa was placed at by b some statisticians while others thought that would be nearer the mark and the more conservative calculators were of opinion opinion opinion ion that would be nearer the the tho truth S Minister Rockhill about five years ago go made a careful investigation of ot the subject which led him to tho the conclusion con con- that all aU the tho official estimates tor for the past years had been greatly great great- i ly exaggerated and that the number br of Chinese living in the Middle Kingdom King Icing Ingom Ing- Ing dom om at the tho present time was was rather less than more than Yet the occasion arose to apportion the indemnity extorted by tho powers on on account of ot the tho Boxer outbreak among amonS' the various provinces accordIng accord- accord InS Ing to their population the Chinese f authorities exhibited a table which showed an aggregate of ot more than It Is a case In which one mans man's guess is about as good a as another's an- an others other's and little more is known for tor ure sure than that there are arc more human beings living within the tho bounds of ot tho the Celestial Empire than in any other otherS S area of ot corresponding extension In lB all aU 01 the world |