716 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 26TH NOVEMBER, 1879.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG.
No. 5 OF 1879.
THURSDAY, 6TMa NOVEMBER, 1879.
PRESENT:
His Excellency Governor J. POPE HENNESSY, C.M.G.
The Honourable the Chief Justice (Sir JOHN SMALE).
The Honourable the Colonial Secretary (WILLIAM HENRY MARSH).
The Honourable the Acting Attorney General (JAMES RUSSELL).
The Honourable the Acting Colonial Treasurer (MALCOLM STRUAN TONNOCHY).
The Honourable PHINEAS RYRIE.
The Honourable WILLIAM KESWICK.
The Honourable JOHN MACNEILE PRICE.
The Honourable HUGH Bold Gibb.
ABSENT.
The Minutes of the two previous Meetings of Council held on the 29th May and the 31st May are read and confirmed.
His Excellency the Governor in opening the Legislative Sessions 1879-1880 makes the following observations on the commerce and finances of the Colony :-
THE COMMERCE AND FINANCES OF THE COLONY.
HIS EXCELLENCY.-Gentlemen, in opening what I may call the Session of 1879-80 and laying before you the Estimates for 1880, my first duty is to briefly refer to the financial statement I made last year when introducing the Estimates for 1879. In September, 1878, I ventured to anticipate that the prosperity of the Colony of Hongkong would be shown at the end of that year by the shipping returns. This is one of the largest depôts of shipping in the world and the prosperity of the Colony is best gauged, no doubt, by the amount of shipping that comes into and leaves the harbour. In spite of commercial depression elsewhere, I thought we should have no reason to despair of the year 1878. It will be satisfactory for you to know that so far my anticipations have proved to be correct, and that the tonnage of vessels recorded as entering Hongkong in the year 1878 exceeds the tonnage that has been hitherto recorded in any year in the history of this Colony. I find in the year 1875 the total tonnage was 3,326,774, in 1876 this rose to 3,900,891, in 1877 it was 4,244,543, and in 1878 it reached 4,352,668; and the Harbour Master says that his returns show that the total tonnage entered and cleared at his office in 1878 was 8,982,593. The total tonnage cleared and entered in the year 1877 was 8,594,348, showing an increase of 388,245 tons. Now, to enable us to estimate the magni- tude of this commercial movement it is natural enough to compare it with the total tonnage entered and cleared in the United Kingdom, and I find that according to the last authentic returns before me that it amounted in the year 1877 to 51,531,000, whereas ours in 1878 was 8,982,000. In other words our tonnage, we may safely say, was something like one-sixth of the total tonnage of the United Kingdom. And another fact of interest is this, that if you endeavour to ascertain, which we cannot do here with accuracy, what is the value of this depôt trade, we find that in England, where they can do so, the total value of imports and exports amounted to £646,000,000, and as our tonnage is something like one-sixth of what it is in the United Kingdom, I think a predecessor of mine who estimated the value of trade of this Colony inwards and outwards at £100,000,000 was not far off the mark. And another gentleman who has a large knowledge of the commercial history and position of this Colony, Mr. GRANVILLE SHARP, in the early part of 1877, before I arrived in the Colony, printed a little state- ment respecting the commercial resources of the Colony, containing statistics of the leading import and export trade of Hongkong by which the probable accuracy of this estimate is confirmed. So far we have, therefore, no reason to complain of the year 1878.. And I may, perhaps, remind the Council that that was the year in which it was asserted, by some otherwise highly intelligent gentlemen, that there was great insecurity of property in the Colony owing to a policy of undue leniency on the part of the local Government towards the criminal classes. We now know, however that, as far as a flourishing revenue and a flourishing commerce are any indications of general security, the result has not been unsatisfactory.
With respect to the Oriental trade, the Harbour Master says:-"There has been a considerable increase in the trade between this port and India and Singapore, as well as with Japan." As regards the latter, I am disposed to think from what I have myself seen in Japan and ascertained from the merchants there, that the Japanese trade with South China and Hongkong will increase more rapidly, in proportion, than any other branch of our Eastern commerce.