To
SIR,
HONGKONG.
No. 16
THE ASSESSOR'S REPORT ON THE ASSESSMENT FOR 1888-9.
Presented to the Legislative Council, by Command of His Excellency the Governor,
ASSESSOR'S OFFICE, HONGKONG, 4th June, 1888.
88.
I have now the honour to hand you the second Annual Report shewing the result of the work of the Assessment Department for the year ending 31st May, 1888.
1. During this period I have made an entirely New Assessment of Victoria, The Hill District, Pok-fu Lam, So-kon Po, and Kowloon Point; the assessment for the remaining portion of the Colony has been adopted for the ensuing year by order of the Governor in Council in accordance with the provisions of the Rating Ordi-
nance.
2. The result of the New Assessment is that the Rateable Value of the entire Colony has been raised from $2,902,933 to $3,050,790 on the Old Assessment, shewing an increase of 5 per cent on the Rateable Value, viz.: $147,857 and an increase in the Rates to be collected of $16,697 or about 4.6 per cent above this year's Rates.
3. A perfectly reliable comparison cannot, however, be made between the Assessments of this year and that for the ensuing year as the latter has been made in accordance with the New Rating Ordinance, which has reduced the percentages in some cases, in the amount of rates to be paid, viz.: at Quarry Bay and Pok-fu Lam, the rates were 8 2 on the Rateable Value, and the Piers in Victoria are now only to be charged with 7 per cent instead of 13 per cent on their Rateable Value.
4. I annex hereto a Tabular statement which will more clearly shew the relative values of the respective Assessments.
5. The Rateable Value of property generally in this Colony is still on the increase. District No. 1 at the West End of the City has considerably increased in value, not so much in the value of individual Tenements as in the number of New Tenements erected. The Rateable Value of this part of the Town has increased 17 per cent. The Hill District, (Victoria Peak) has also considerably increased in value since the last Assessment and likewise Kowloon Point, mostly on account of the extensive Godowns which are being erected on the Praya.
6. The number of Rateable Tenements is 9,537 being an increase of 102, this is a small number, caused no doubt by the numerous Fires, 150 Tenements being thereby destroyed in twelve months and most of these Tenements although being rebuilt are not yet Rateable.
7. A very considerable portion of my time allotted for the General Assessment has been taken up in investigating the Returns made by the Chinese of the Rents they receive, on which I base my Assessment. and I regret to say that I believe a very large number of the returns made to me are false, in eight cases I conclusively proved to the Magistrates before whom I summoned the offenders, that false returns were knowingly made to me, in some cases by Chinese occupying a good position in the Mercantile World, and notwithstanding the widest publicity was given to the Magisterial proceedings, the offences were continued. In the above cases Fines to the amount of $2,875 were recovered.
The Honourable A. LISTER,
Colonial Treasurer.