HONGKONG
FINANCES.
207
The finances of the Colony had for several years gone on improving until 1892, and the estimated revenue for 1893 was $1,906,396, and the ordinary expenditure $1,899,611, The Colony has a small public debt, a loan of £200,000 having been contracted in 1886, the sinking fund for repayment of which now amounts to £42,758. Another loan of £200,000 was contracted last year.
The annual rateable value of the city of Victoria is $3,145,409, that of Kowloon $277,942, and that of the various villages on the island and the Hill District $213,842.
DESCRIPTION.
The island is about 11 miles long and from 2 to 5 broad; its circumference is about .27 miles. It consists of a broken ridge of lofty hills, with few valleys of any extent and scarcely any ground available for cultivation. The only valleys worthy of the name are those of Wong-nai Chung and Little Hongkong, both of which are remark- ably beautiful and well wooded, being in fact the only parts where any considerable arborescent vegetation was formerly to be found. The island is well watered by numerous streams, many of which are perennial. The city of Victoria and the suburbs are applied with water from the Pokfolum and Tytam reservoirs. The former, constructed in 1866-69, has a storage capacity of seventy-four million gallons, while the Tytam reservoir, constructed in 1883-88, has an area of about 29 acres and a storage capacity of about four hundred million gallons. From the Tytam reservoir the water is conveyed into town by means of a tunnel a mile and one-third in length and a conduit along the hillside some 400 feet above the sea level and nearly four miles in length, on which a fine road- called the Bowen Road-has been formed, which commands the most charming views of the city and the eastern district, and is a favourite resort of pedestrians. In many parts the conduit is carried over the ravines and rocks by ornamental stone bridges, one of which, above Wanchai, has twenty-three arches.
The natural productions of the Colony are few and unimportant. There is little land suitable for tillage, and nothing is grown but a little rice and some vegetables near the outlying villages. There are large granite quarries, both on the island and in Kowloon, and there is a small export of this stone. In 1889 a galena lode was found in the nullah above the Tytam Service Reservoir in Victoria, but after a trial did not promise sufficiently to justify further working. A reef bearing tin has also been dis- covered near Stanley. A bed of fire clay exists at Deep Water Bay, and bricks and earthen- ware pipes are manufactured from it. The forests now growing up and in course of being planted may one day become a source of revenue. In British Kowloon a lode of tin has been discovered, but so far has not been worked.
The approaches to the port are fairly well lighted. A lighthouse on Green Island lights the western entrance of the harbour, the light being a fixed dioptric one of the 4th order, visible at a distance of fourteen miles; and the eastern approach is indicated by a powerful light (dioptric, 1st order) on Cape D'Aguilar, visible at a distance of twenty-three miles, while a smaller one on Cape Collinson, visible at distance of eight miles, assists navigators to make the Ly-ee-mùn Pass. A lighthouse on Gap Rock, about thirty miles to the south, was completed and first displayed its beacon on the 1st April, 1892; it is connected with the port by a cable, and the ap- proach of vessels is now signalled from it to the Post Office. A lighthouse has been erected by the Chinese Government on Waglan Island, near Cape D'Aguilar, which it in some respects supersedes; the light was first shown on the 6th May, 1893.
The harbour of Hongkong is one of the finest and most beautiful in the world, having an area of ten square miles, and, with its diversified scenery and varied shipping, presents an animated and imposing spectacle. It consists of the sheet of water between the island and the mainland, and is enclosed on all sides by lofty hills, formerly destitute of foliage, but the slopes are gradually becoming clothed with young forests, the result of the afforestation scheme of the Government. The city of Victoria is magnificently situated, the houses, many of them large and handsome, rising, tier upon tier, from the water's edge to a height of over four hundred feet on the face of the Peak, while many bungalows are visible on the very summit of the hills. Seen from the water at night, when lamps twinkle among the trees and houses, the city, spreading along the shore for upwards of four miles, affords a sight not to be forgotten.
Nor on landing are the favourable impressions of the stranger dissipated or lessened. The city is fairly well built, the roads and streets are for the most part admirably mɩde and kept, and many of the thoroughfares delightfully shaded with well grown trees. The European business quarter occupies the middle of the city, from Pottinger Street to the City Hall, but with the exception of this limited area almost all the lower levels, especially the Western District, are covered by a dense mass of Chinese