441
The expenditure on the Volunteers, which is entirely borne by the Colony, was $44,032.13.
XII-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The outbreak of war between Russia and Japan on the 8th February was not without effect on the shipping trade of Hongkong. The percentage of British to total tonnage entering and clearing which had fallen continuously from 75 to 59 in the previous 10 years, rose to 70 in 1904 owing to causes already given in this report. The war brought in its train various questions, involving recourse to the law courts of the Colony, relating to its effect on charter parties and to the refusal of duty by seamen on ships carrying contraband. Speculation in blockade run- ning resulted in some heavy losses to the Chinese and there was tightness of money at the end of the year. After the naval action at Chemulpo on the 9th February some Russian wounded were treated in the Hongkong Hospitals pending removal to Europe and the attention paid to them was duly recognized by the Russian Government. Later 4 Officers and 61 men from a Russian torpedo boat destroyer, who had taken refuge at Weihaiwei, were transferred to Hongkong and arrangements for.their maintenance here made in consultation with the Russian Consul.
An attempt was made in the latter half of the year to start the shipment to South Africa vid Hongkong of indentured labourers recruited in the Kwang Si and Kwang Tung Provinces on similar conditions as regards terms of engagement and arrangements for transport to those embodied in the Convention for shipment of labourers to South Africa from the Treaty Ports, which was signed in London on the 13th May, 1904. An agreement was made by the Acting Consul General at Canton with the Viceroy of the Two Kwang for despatching to Hongkong labour- ers recruited at Wuchow by the Chinese officials. The class of recruits obtained in this manner was not satisfactory nor were the numbers obtainable from the two Provinces, in the face of opposition from persons interested in recruiting for other countries, sufficient to justify the maintenance of the depôt here. The attempt was therefore abandoned after 1,746 labourers had been despatched.
A rebellion in Kwang Si, which died down towards the end of the year, enabled Hongkong to render a service to China by rigorously maintaining restric- tions on the export of arms and ammunition from the Colony.
The construction of a railway from Canton to the frontier of the territory under British jurisdiction, for which the British and China Corporation had made a preliminary agreement with the Chinese Government on the 28th March, 1899, formed the subject of discussion in London with the Directors of the Corporation with a view to an arrangement being made for working this railway with one to be constructed from the frontier of the New Territories to the sea at British Kow- loon. The strong feeling of the Government and of the entire commercial com- munity of the Colony as to the importance of the complete undertaking to the prosperity of Hongkong was expressed in the Rert on the Blue Book for 1903.
During the year the work of the New Territories Land Court, established in 1900, and subsequently reconstituted, was completed. 354,277 separate lots had been demarcated and their ownership determined at a cost of $143,615. Appro- priate titles to these lots have since been issued.
The rice crops in the New Territories were good, and an increase in the number of houses in nearly all the villages evidenced increased prosperity. The peasants appeared to appreciate the greater security they derived from adequate police protection and showed willingness to assist in improving road communica-
ations.
Building activity in old Kowloon and Yaumati gives hope that in time the considerable available area on the mainland south of the hills will furnish relief to the congested districts of Victoria. This relief will probably be accelerated when the proposed railway is in hand.