428
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11TH JUNE, 1881.
they do not like, and to conduct their domestic
arrangements according to European and American models. There again I found, on consulting the Chinese, that they did not like it. They said all this would only tend to drive them away, and
they ventured, shrewdly I think, to say that their
own system had some merits, and that the system to be substituted for their own had not worked
well elsewhere-had caused typhoid fever, diph-
theria, and cholera, from which this Colony and
the neighbouring ports are free.
Well, gentlemen, it is upon such questions as these that I have been able to give to the Chinese
community positive assurances to the effect that
I would make no distinction between them and
the other British subjects in the Colony. The
mere fact of doing that which was, after all, but
a negative exercise of the functions of the Govern-
ment has gained for the Government the confid-
ence of the Chinese community, and they have come to the Colony for the last three in
years large numbers. They are settling here, buying property, and what they are doing is, no doubt, of great interest to us all.
I must
say. it is of interest to me as the Queen's Representative, not merely because I see Her Majesty's Chinese subjects prosperous, but because what is going on in Hongkong tends to render prosperous men of our own race from England, Ireland, and Scotland in this Colony. I rejoice, also, to see that this prosperity is shared in by the Armenians, the Parsees, and other subjects of the Empress of India; as well as by the Portuguese, the Americans, the Frenchmen, the Germans, and the other foreigners who here enjoy the commercial advantages of an Anglo-Chinese Colony and the protection of the British flag.
My honourable friend the Attorney General has seen the West Indian Islands. He and I have seen Englishmen full of enterprise and ability there, but we have seen, too, many of them bank- rupt planters, broken-down merchants. Why? Because the native community they had to work with was not like the community of this Colony. Here you find a community industrious and temperate, with a natural aptitude for commerce. But it is not merely Chinese who are making money. The Europeans are making money also. And as we watch the transfer of business houses in this Colony, and see the Chinese trader coming
closer, day by day, to the manufacturer of England, it is a deeply interesting fact to note, that, with the growing prosperity of the place, there arises a demand for British enterprise, for enterprise that
the Chinese mind, with its unrivalled trading instincts and natural commercial skill, cannot at
present supply. I refer to our local Companies,
founded by Europeans. Is there any one here who can say that in any other Colony there are public Companies more prosperous than the public Companies of Hongkong ? Take them all in all, the public Companies founded by the enterprise
and ability of our European merchants in this Colony, are at this moment eminently prosperous,
則之生不想益人哉異不與儀事當所 未而皮乏在而所他毆樂華型務意繪 有生絞人西現 用又逐此人爲效者形 此惟腸卽國在養說華他商此歐艾圖 香痧身之所生一人云量事洲强多 港等虛受立之哲使夫本花使用 附症發其免法言之如見部旗華華 近每熱害穢未云 出是華堂人人人 各每喉者氣嘗 意又人亦以家所 由内亦法無土也奚極爲庭不
幟華箱法
蔭: 大樂人有 得貿 德見及典 享易
人葡
埃
蘭
無萄服 之使囊
芽事 與港有但
當意者廴强使華人家庭 應許善待本港華人不分 繫代 皇后而行故有以爲 營謀利者才幹異常但亦見庄主之虧折者及商賈之倒盤者 極 所繪形圖多用華人所不 因如此之事本部堂乘機 本部堂 奉命治理此土無非 律政司亦嘗遊歷西印度矣本部堂偕之在彼見有英商之經 皇后之華人囊有餘費亦爲香人蓋香港之本土人辛勤檢點善於營生無非性成者要之本 甚多此事有何故乎乃因該處土人與彼貿易者大異香港土
之而生惟香港附近各单 無非衆人所顧以爲要者 生皮鱧腸痧等症每每由 也絜眷安居置產貿易均
華百姓貿易之且藉大英雄 之才幹識力所設公司現在極其興盛如船澳公司糖局公司 輪船公司保險公司煤氣公司
箱及各國人等在香港均享英 也愈於香港之公司者乎總而靜之歐洲商人在本港以圖謀 者又樂見葡萄芽人花旗人大 巧於謀利生成之性亦現在未能趨步者本部堂所指而言香 波斯人及凡服事 印度后帝 須有英人勇於謀利之識力郎華人雖具善於經營無匹之才 者均有興旺又樂見亞美尼人 英國製做貨物之人漸漸親炙如此可見香港雖乃漸興亦必
藉港斯
要
亦服
服以土
享萬人后尼同 爲事 專為無
旗英斯大帝人族英
於有國
識香司利人
力港屬生
得亦之漸店
發現識漸 人勤因
者在力親
親彼已檢該
未郎 即炙
歐
盛歐在步
如洲
公圖典
司謀
香文
港觀然
本倘
土爾
客細
與港
彼析
極非