The different trades and professions of the Chinese in Singapore, are School-masters, Writers, Cashiers, Shop-keepers, Apothecaries, Coffin-makers, Grocers, Gold-smiths, Silver-smiths, Tin-smiths, Blacksmiths, Dyers, Tailors, Barbers, Shoemakers, Basket-makers, Fishermen, Sawyers, Boat-builders, Cabinet-makers, Architects, Masons, Manufacturers of lime and bricks, Sailors, Ferrymen, Sago manufacturers, Distillers of Spirits, Cultivators of plantations of Gambier, Sugar, Siri, Pepper, and Nutmegs, Play actors, Sellers of cakes and fruit, Carriers of burdens, Fortune tellers, idle vagabonds who have no work and of whom there are not a few, beggars, and, nightly, there are those villains the thieves.
The above different trades and professions may be classed under four divisions.
1st. Those whose profession it is to teach come under the designation of Su, the literate.
2d. The cultivators of fields and gardens come under the denomination of Long or husbandmen.
3d. Those engaged in handicraft business belong to the class called Kong, mechanics, or manufacturers.
4th. Those who trade and open shops are designated Siang, merchants.
In my opinion, the greatest number of married men are to be found among the Malacca born Chinese; next to them among the Hok-kien shop Keepers, then the Tio-Chin, then the Khé, and lastly among the Macao Chinese; but Shop keepers chiefly can afford to marry. As for common laborers and coolies and those who have no fixed employment very few among them get married.
The Chinese who congregate here are a mixed mass from all parts; the unmarried ones among them are very numerous, and the married ones very few. Though the number of the later is very small still I cannot with any certainty state it; upon a general calculation I should suppose there were about 2000 married Chinese.
The number of Chinese who return annually to China is probably 3,000; of this number a large proportion come hither from other parts to procure a passage to China.
