We
unable to admit the force of
ark cra
the remarks of His bxcellency in Council, by
which it is endeavoured to justify the Opium and other licensed farms__" Beca
"Because the same " system is in existence at Singapore." __ It is difficult, we conceive, to find two places, whose
situation is more
dissimilar ins
I in every respect. Singapore is a place where sent
of
Land is remarkably moderate, it is the s Emporium of an important and valuable- Trade, with a large and comparatively. wealthy population. Hongkong on the other hand is already taxed in ground rents alone higher than
any Colony in the world;
it has no trade at all, and
the
mere
place of Residence of Government and its
Officers, with a few British Morchants, and
а
very scanty
ar
d
6 poor
Chinese population.
is as able to bear
in our humble
When Hongkong
Singapore, it may,
tazation as
judgment,
100
judgment, be still a question, whether the heavy ground rents ought not to exempt the Inhabitants from further payments; but whatever may eventually be considered expedient, we would wish to impress upon the Government our. belief, that oppressive Burthers laid on an
infant Trade, and on a new bolony, situated as Hongkong. now is must inevitably be not only unjust. early settlers, but ultimately fatal to the Settlement itself
to ther
We are bound, as Merchants, to speake
with diffidence on points of law, where we +
find our views at variance with those of the Colonial Law Officers ; but we must still
adhere to our
and reassert
opinion, and,
our
conviction, that Ordinance Nr. 2 is alike.
unconstitutional and illegal.
We quite
concur with His Excellency, in the wisdom of his having refused to levy small: tonnage Duty in Honghong, for as
miest