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dissent from this opinion, because I had no reason to do so, and it would have been presumptuous for me with regard to purely mercantile matters to express opinions opposed to those of a mercantile community. But even if the anticipation had been my own, I am by no means sure, despite the Honourable Member's statements, that I should have much cause to regret it. For I find some 26 out of the 35 Companies referred to are not only carrying on business with a paid-up capital of 6 millions, but appear to be on a sound footing. From the present value of the shares,, the greater portion of the capital mentioned appears to have been well invested, while others of these Companies though their shares at this time of depression are at a discount cannot be yet said to be a failure as they have not yet had time to fully test their capabilities of success. It is no doubt true that 7 of the Companies referred to, not "many" as stated by the Honourable Member, are in liquidation, but even as regards these as well as some of the others which have not yet been successful it might very possibly have been said, not without a certain correctness, on their being launched, that their prospects were good, as their failure or comparative failure may have been due to faults of inanagement or insufficiency of capital. And in confirmation of this view it may be observed that the enterprises of some of these Companies in liquidation, as for instance the Borneo Planting Companies have, I am informed, only quite recently found persons outside the Colony who sufficiently believe in their prospects to pay a considerable sum for their properties. Mentioning these things by the way as furnishing some justification, not of my own, but what I intended to convey as the public view of the prospects of these Companies, I must now point out that the aggregate capital of the Companies referred to which have failed or the shares of which are at a heavy discount, is extremely insignificant as compared with the total paid-up capital of local Joint Stock Companies which are at a premium and for the most part at a very high premium.
Taking up the list of local enterprises published in the Daily Journals I find that the shares of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank with a paid-up capital of $9,300,000, backed as it now is by a reserve fund of over a million sterling, are worth now in the aggregate about $28,000,000. The shares of the two local Fire Insurance Companies with an aggregate paid-up capital of $800,000 are quoted in the one case at 500 in the other at 300 per cent. premium. The shares of the local Marine Insurance Companies with aggregate capital of $1,350,000 are quoted at nearly 300 per cent., 150 per cent. and 100 per cent. premium, respectively. Carrying my eye down the list I find the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company shares (with a paid up capital of 1 million dollars) are at 98 per cent. premium, while those of the Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company on which an aggregate of $1,000,000 is paid up are now worth over $1,590,000; the China and Manila Steam Navigation Company's shares with paid-up capital of $175,000 are at about 150 per cent.; and the $1,600,000 paid-up capital of the Hongkong, Canton and Macao Steam-boat Company is worth $2,660,000. Similarly the shares of seven other Companies (China Sugar Company, Hongkong Land Investment Company, Société des Charbonnages du Tonkin, Hongkong Hotel Company, Humphreys Estate and Finance Company, A. S. Watson & Co., Hongkong Ice Company) principally owned in Hongkong on which was originally paid $6,223,000 are now worth $12,940,000, which added to the figures repre- senting the paid-up capital and present market value of the Hongkong Bank and 6 Companies just mentioned give a total of $22,010,500 paid in respect of shares which are now worth $56,177,500. This, however, gives only a partial view of the situation. A more complete view is furnished by the following statements and figures supplied to me by the Registrar of Public Companies.
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"At the end of the year 1887 there were 26 public companies whose shares "were dealt in in the Hongkong Market having an aggregate paid-up capital of $26,233,000 and the market value of which was then $46,870,125. In 1888 3 of "these Companies went into liquidation and a fourth reduced its capital by
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