THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Companies w
by the reductions is con- carry the recommendation of the majority of miderably grea
the increase of revenue the Unofficial Members of Council that a tax Consequent upon the readjustment of rates of 2 cents for light dues should be perman- the 1st August last. remain, dear sir,ently levied on vessels calling at this port into yours faithfully.
effect. I also enclose a copy of the letter re- caived from the Colonial Secretary acknowledg-| ng the receipt of the petition.
W. BULLARD. Acting Manager in China.
30th December, 1896. W. Bullard, Esq., Acting Manager in China, Eastern Extension and Great Northern Telegraph Companies.
Dear Sir, I beg to acknowledge, with thanks, receipt of your favour of the 28th inst. announcing, in tabulated form, further re- ductions in tariffs to Straits Settlements, North Borneo, Netherlands Indies, India, Ceylon,
·Indo-China, Siam, Australasia, &c., &o.
Your letter is being placed before my Com- mittee.-I am, dear sir, yours faithfully,
R. CHATTERTON WILCOX, Secretary.
SHIPOWNERS AND THE VAGRANCY
ORDINANCE.
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
Hongkong, 5th January, 1897. Sir, I am directed by my Committee to bring to the notice of the Government what seems to them a defect in the law relating to impecunious persons landed in this colony as embodied in Ordinance No. 12 of 1888 known as the Vagrancy Ordinance.
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In November last the master of the British steamer Chingtu was fined $600 for detaining eight Japanese stowaways on board his ship for thirty-six hours after her arrival in port from Kobe. The defendant sought to justify his action by pleading the Vagrancy Ordinance, which forbids the master of a merchant vessel, under heavy penalties, to land, or to permit to be landed, in the colony any persons without visible means of support.
My Committee are of opinion that the law as it stands imposes a great responsibility on shipowners and masters, and places the latter on the horns of a dilemma. If their allow stowaways or destitutes to land, they become responsible for their maintenance, besides being liable to pay in addition all costs and charges incurred in connection with them; if, on the other hand, they detain such persons on board until they have communicated with the au- thorities they are, as in the case of the master of the Chingtu, liable to a fine for false im- prisonment.
H. A. RITCHIE.
Superintendent,
Hongkong, 24th December, 1896. His Excellency Sir William Robinson, K.C.M.G., Governor and Commander-in- Chief of the Colony of Hongkong. May it please your Excellency,
January
the ex
when all, and more nected with the com houses have bee ted cost of the whole i including cost of mai amount only to $16,870 per tirely new departure and is not with the very clear and distinct the proclamation declaring Hongkong port.
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The letter addressed by the Chamber to His Excellency on the 31st July last so accurately expresses the views of the shipping community on the subject of light dues that we feel assured It was not unreasonable that when, for the we may confidently rely on the cordial sup- convenience of commerce, the Government of port of the Chamber in furthering the object the colony was called on to incur
large of our petition, and I would beg to ask the capital expenditure in the erection of light Committee to invite the co-operation of the houses at the request mainly of the principal Chambers of Commerce in Great interest, the shipping should provide Britain in representing to Her Majesty's Go-required. There is nothing unreasonable or to vernment the impolicy of inflicting a tax on which your petitioners will object in shipping, with the avowed purpose of raising adequate charge on shipping to def money for local revenue. I would beg to point expenses of maintaining buoys, beacons, out that if a tax on shipping is levied with this lights in and about Hongkong, but that ships intention in an adjacent British colony, which and steamers should be taxed in aid of the has hitherto been a free port, it will assuredly general Colonial revenue and to relieve the in- have a most prejudical effect on any representa-habitants from bearing their proper burdens 18 tions which may be made to the Government of wholly in disaccord with the character of a free China to bring the excessively heavy tonnage port and is, we respectfully submit, opposed to dues imposed on vessels trading with that country the practice of the leading commercial nations. within reasonable limits.—I am, dear sir, yours These buoys, beacons, and lights are maintained
for the benefit of the colony and the profit of faithfully,
its inhabitants, and to attract trade and com- meree thither, and the inhabitants not only have not borne one cent of the expenses of their con- struction or maintenance, but it is now proposed that they should derive a direct profit from them. 5.-We very much doubt if in any highly civilized country has a deliberate attempt ever been made to raise a profit revenue out of We, the undersigned, agents and repre- light dues. They have always been imposed sentatives of companies and firms owning for the express purpose of providing for the steamers trading to and in the Far East, have construction and maintenance of lighthouses, the honour to address you, in the names and buoys, and beacons and for no other purpose on behalf of our principals, on the subject of whatsoever. It has happened that in the the light dues now levied and proposed to be course of time the precise object for which a levied on vessels entering the port of Hong-light due has been imposed has been. lost kong, with special reference to the correspond- sight of and that a profit revenue has in fact ence, recently published, between your Excel been derived from it, but so soon as atten- lenoy's Government, the Hongkong Chamber of tion has been called to the fact there has Commerce, and the Unofficial Members of your been an express disclaimer and a reduction Council concerning the Gap Rock light dues. or abolition of the charge. In the Dardan. 2.---We understand from that correspondence elles and Bosphorus such a discovery has that your Excellency is prepared to give effect recently been made, and the representatives of to the promise made by your predecessor u all the Powers are pressing the Porte for office when the Gap Rock light dues were reduction of the dues to an amount sufficient to first voted and to abolish those dues, the entire cover the expenses. In England a Depart
mental Committee of the Board of Trade cost of the Gap Rock light with all its acces- sories having been more than covered by the have just reported on the same subject and proceeds; but that your Excellency proposes to have unanimously recommended the equalization of all light dues and their diminution to uz permantly raise the general light dues levied on vessels frequenting this port from 1 cent to 2 amount calculated to cover expenses and no cents, to supply the deficiency caused in the more. The strongest representations have been made to the Government to relieve shipping general revenue of the colony by the abandon- ment of the special charges in respect of that entirely of this burden and to transfer it to the Light.
general revenue, but so far without success; the principle, however, is clearly admitted that the light dues on shipping should not be made source of profit.
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The Committee would therefore respectfully suggest the amendment of the Ordinance, first by giving masters of ships the necessary powers to detain stowaways on board after arrival in port for a reasonable time, to afford them an opportunity to communicate with the authorities and hand such stowaways over to their Consuls or to the Government; and, 3-We beg, in the first place, to bring to secondly, by revising that clause of the Ordin- your Excellency's notice that by Sir Henry ance which holds shipowners respousible, six Pottinger's Proclamation of the 16th February, months after landing, for passengers who have 1842, Hongkong was declared a "free port, 6.—We have further to point out to your paid their own passages to the colony. This and no manner of customs, port duties, or any Excellency that the continuance of these light clause undoubtedly entails hardship on the ship- other charges were to be levied on any ships or dues as a permanent charge is an injustice to owner, and might readily be modified to vessels of whatever nation or sailing underforeign shipping, and will tend to deter vessels refer to those persons only whose passages had whatever flag that may enter the port or on from coming to the port. The export trade. been paid for them, or who were known to be their cargoes." Secondly, we would remind from the East has for some time past been destitute of resources.
your Excellency that, until the year 1875, no passing through a period of very great depres With regard to Asiatic stowaways, my Com-light dues were levied in Hongkong and that sion. During the greater part of the last mittee venture to think that the responsibility they were only imposed in that year for the twelve months rates from the Straits Settle of shipowners and masters should cease upon special purpose of reimbursing the Government ments averaged from 5/- to 8/- per ton, and their handing such persons over to the care of the amounts then recently expended on the from Ceylon about 7/-, and for some descrip- the Government.
erection of lighthouses and for no other pur- tions of cargo rates from China and Japan
8.5 low pose, and that the rate then imposed of one cent have been
as 15/- Interport per ton would appear to have been continued trade has also been at a very low ebb for some after the requisite sums had been raised more time past and there is no apparent prospect of through inadvertence than by design. Lastly, any improvement in the immediate future. your Excellency has before you, in the letter Every item of expenditure has to be closely of the Chamber of Commerce addressed to you watched, and a comparatively small difference in July last, the promise of a late Governor of in the expenditure at a port may determine the Hongkong that the Gap Rock light dues then course of a vessel's voyage. Steamers coming imposed were not intended to be a permanent out to Japan and Shanghai are no longer as charge on shipping, or a permanent addition to formerly compelled to' call at Hongkong the Colonial revenue, but a temporary charge coals or stores. The great inor intended to cover and provide for a special ex- the diminution in the consumption of penditure incurred mainly on the representa- greater bunker capacity enable vessels
or Shanghai tions of shipowners and of the shipping interest. the voyage direct to Yokoha
4.-Your Excellency's proposal to burden without coming into Hongkong. the commerce of the port with a permanent ment to call is often very charge on shipping of 24 cents per ton (esti- it is a question, even with mated to bring in a sum of $113,000 per annum), taking in or discharging us in aid of the general revenue of the colony tons of cargo. The light dues to be
Trusting that this suggestion will commend itself favourably to the attention of the Govern- ment. I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
•.
R. CHATTERTON WILCOX,
Secretary.
THE LIGHT DUES,
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
*** Hongkong, 14th January, 1897. R. C. Wilcox Esq., Secretary, Hongkong
Chamber of Commerce.
Dear Sir-On behalf of the Agents and Representatives of Companies and Firms own- ing vessels trading to and in the Far East, I begėto you, herewith, for the information the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce copy of a petition dated 24th December, 1896, praying His Excellency the Governor not to
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