POPULATION (Contd.)
W say Sturdy, independent, still excluding themselves from political questions (they remained at work even in the big strike of 1925), these people deserve a page to themselves in local history.
Interesting details concerning the trade and finance of the Colony over a period of thirty years were contained in a speech made before the Legislative Council in October, 1927, by His Excellency the Governor, Sir Cecil Clementi.
On January 1, 1897, the Colony's surplus amounted to $548,964. The revenue collected in that year was $2,686,914 and the expenditure was $2,641,409.
It is worthy of note that during his Budget speech last year the Colonial Secretary announced a surplus on paper of $16,000,000.
In 1897, the total civil population of the Colony was estimated to be 243,565. The total shipping engaged in foreign trade entered and cleared at Hong Kong was 12,124,599 tons and this total, 67 per cent was British.
It can be seen, therefore, that during the thirty years 1897-1927 the Colony's revenue increased more than eightfold, its population was more than trebled, and its shipping engaged in foreign trade, exclusive of junks, was more than doubled.
The revenue increased steadily from $2,686,914 in 1897 to $7,035,011 in 1906. Then there was a brief set back for the revenue in 1907 was only $6,602,280 and in 1908 it fell to $6,104,207.
Thenceforward the increase in revenue was again continuous until 1918 when a depression set in. After 1921 the revenue suddenly leaped ahead again until 1923 when another depression was felt.
The first slump was consequent on over-speculation in 1904, followed in 1905 by a boycott of American goods in China, as a protest against the United States exclusion law.
The second depression was during the years of world-wide disorganisation, which followed the conclusion of the Great War. The trade collapse here was aggravated by the disturbed state of neighbouring provinces and of China generally. Eventually anarchy in China re-acted beneficially upon the revenue of Hong Kong, because the Chinese realised that this Colony afforded a safe refuge from the storm, and they came in increasing numbers to find some foothold within it. A land boom followed and the Government revenue from the sale of land rose from $262,960 in 1919 to $3,488,797 in 1923. Then a decline set in and revenue dropped to $286,342 in 1926.
Sir Cecil continued: Turning now to the statistics of the Colony's population, it is necessary first of all to observe these figures have by no means the same degree of accuracy as the financial returns. There was a census in 1901, in 1911, and 1921 but for the intervening years the total civil population is only an estimate based upon the excess of births over deaths and of immigration over emigration. Towards the end of an inter-censal period these figures are apt to be wide of the mark, and this fact no doubt accounts for the sharp rises in 1911 and 1921, when the previous estimates were suddenly corrected by actual enumeration. The figures for the census years are:
1901 total civil population
290,124
1911 total civil population
464,227
1921 total civil population
686,680