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which Chinese lie without hesitation, renders the task of keeping an absolutely correct return of some 50,000 or 60,000 junks annually almost impossible with a staff of two Junk Inspectors in Victoria and no one at the outstations whose sole duty it is, and I am forced to the conclusion that a number of these junks come and go without leaving any trace on our records. In 1897 as in 1877 inore correct returns would in all probability account for a further apparent increase in the junk trade, but this correctness cannot be arrived at without additional staff and expenditure.
In 1893, this Department began to try to gauge the amount of cargo tons represented by the registered tonnage of the Shipping frequenting the Port. There is no special staff or machinery for this and its correctness or otherwise depends on reports and returns made direct from the Shipping, or through its Agents.
In 1893 the amount of cargo discharged from European ocean-going shipping was given as 2,717,910 tons. In that year Junk exported 845,177 tons. In 1897 the European cargo was 2,596,458 and Junks exported 684,320. Assuming for the moment that the cargo exported by junks was entirely made up of that discharged from the ocean-going European ships, these junks distributed 31% in 1893, and 26.3% in 1897, showing no great decrease, particularly as owing to the decreased importa- tion of rice, 1897 was a bad year for junks.
But the Customs returns furnish a still better fact from which to draw our inference, namely the value of the trade in junks between Hongkong and China. In 1888 this was Hk. Tls. 33,495,526, in 1893 it was 39,938,740, and in 1897 it was 39,991,611 giving an increase of 19% in the 10 years to put against an increase of 25% in the register tonnage of European ocean-going shipping during the same period.
Value of Junk trade Hongkong and China.
Year.
Ocean- going European Tonnage.
Imports from Hongkong Hongkong.
Exports to
Total.
Foreign Native Goods.
Hk. Tls.
1888,.
1889,
1890,
1891,
1892, ....
1893,
1894,
1895,
1896,
1897,
Native Produce. Produce.
6,973,48315,636,353 | 3,476,200 | 14,328,478 33,441,526
6,016,908 12,894,763 | 3,711,707 |14,194,598 30,801,068
6,392,575 17,960,229 | 3,453,432 14,840,669 | 36,234,330
6,081,407 13,297,933| 3,376,619 | 17,016,926 | 53,691,478
6,968,236 13,468,368 | 3,113,192 | 17,290,632 | 33,872,192
7,320,753 17,663,217| 3,338,377 18,937,126 | 39,938,720
7,193,855 15,826,749 3,438,540 | 19,665,908 38,431,197
8,211,496 21,585,595 3,455,730 | 22,678,090 | 47,719,415
8,971,43221,124,268 | 3,482,122 22,565,590 | 47,171,980
8,739,878 13,027,228 3,939,890 23,024,493 39,991,611
Still another test that can be applied is this. In 1893 (the first year that we collected the cargo. returns) European tonnage discharged 2,717,910 tons of cargo and the value of the foreign goods. exported from Hongkong to China by junk, according to the Customs return, was Hk. Tls. 17,663,217 or in the ratio of 1 ton to 6.4 Hk. Tls., in 1896 the ratio had risen to 1 ton to 8 Hk. Tle., but it dropped in 1897 to 1 ton to 5 Hk. Tls., owing, in the opinion of the Commissioner of Customs, to transit privileges favouring at that time shipments in European bottoms instead of in junks.
Whether or not there should be a fixed ratio between total European tonnage and the total junk tonnage frequenting the port, is, I think, very doubtful, because, in the first place, junks are not the sole distributors, except to non-treaty Ports with which it is probable trade does not expand rapidly, and, in the next place, the European tonnage is not solely employed in the carriage of goods to be distributed from Hongkong as a centre, for a not inconsiderable portion of the cargoes is in transit to more distant ports.
In 1893 the cargo discharged in Hongkong from ocean-going ships amounted to 74% of the registered tonnage arriving, and the transit cargo was 36%, in 1897 the cargo discharged was only 59% while the transit cargo had gone up to 42°%•
More probable does it appear that, if the junk trade has any fixed relation to anything it is to the quantity of rice imported from Cochin China and Siam. The bearing which this has on the junk trade will be very clearly seen from the annexed diagrain which is prepared from the informa- tion contained in the Customs return.