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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954
couraged by prospects of work, Chinese labourers. flocked into Hong Kong, and by April 1844 the population reached 19,000. The establishment of ship- building yards, eventually to grow into a major industry, dates from the Colony's earliest days.
No time was lost in linking up Hong Kong with Europe, and the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Naviga- tion Company established a monthly mail service in 1845. Commercial relations with several places were opened up, including Shanghai, Siam, and the United States of America, and the junk trade with China flourished.
Hong Kong provided a convenient port for the emigration of Chinese labourers to many places, mainly the Straits Settlements, Siam, and Java, and when news went round of the opening up of goldfields in California there was a rush of Chinese who went seeking the "Golden Mountains". When gold was discovered in Australia not long afterwards thousands of Chinese rushed to the "New Golden Mountains", via Hong Kong. Over 30,000 Chinese emigrants made use of the facilities provided by Hong Kong in the year 1852 alone. The flow of remittances to China in later years from those who established new homes on the other side of the world has been of considerable help to the economy of China. In the same way the descendants of those early emigrants have made their way up in the world, and their contacts are still maintained through Hong Kong.
With the spread of unrest in China following the Taiping Rebellion, many thousands of Chinese flocked to Hong Kong, the first of many similar occur- rences when Chinese in search of shelter have sought
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