The Governor of Kuangsi acknowledges the receipt of a communication from_ the Board of Revenue in which it was pointed out that his province and five others had failed to forward census returns for the year 1888, No returns had, it was added, been received from Kuangsi between the years 1857 and 1887, and before the former date the departments of Yungan, Ch'uanchow and several others had failed frequently to supply the necessary returns of popula tion and of grain stored in the government granaries. The Board asked that these omissions should now, as far as possible, be made good. The Lieutenant-Governor, who was called upon to report on the subject, states that ever since the time of Hsien Fény when the province was ravaged bythe rebellion, the population of Kuangsi has been of such a shifting and uncertain nature that no accurate census returns were procurable. Quite recently the people have been returning to their old homeland the country has been gradually assuming a more settled condition. Complete census returns for the year 1888 have now been received from the eleven Prefectures and three departments into which the province divided, The total return for the whole province gives the number of households as 1,235,649, containing a population of 4,094,639 males and 3,414,087 females, or 7,508,726 souls in all. Since the rebellion gain stored in the Government there' has practically been
The total return gives only 827 pi tributed over three districts. As regards the census returns prior to 1887 the Lieutenant-Governor asserts, and in this he is strongly supported by the Governor, that it would be utterly hopeless to try to arrive at any estimate of the population during those Sia The present return will serve ausis for future statements of the kind, the necessary additions and deductions being made at fixed intervals.
22nd November,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.