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13. The estimated expenditure of Hongkong, exclusive of what may be required for Public Buildings and Roads, amounts to £39,000. Of this, about £19,000 is required for the Civil Government of the Colony, £6,675 to defray the expenses of the Court of Justice, and £11,373 for the Police and Gaol Departments. With the exception, perhaps, of £3,800 obtained from Licenses granted by Government, the whole revenue,—amounting in 1847 to £31,500, in 1848 to £25,100, and estimated for the present year at £25,500, raised in the form of Ground Rents, Police Taxes, and other imposts of an indirect nature,—bears severely upon the limited Mercantile community in this place, most of whom, as already stated, find it necessary to have also Establishments at the other free ports, while those who have no Establishments in this Colony, who are deriving nearly the same advantages from this Settlement and from the Court of Judicature as we do, are contributing nothing towards their support.
14. It cannot be otherwise than impolitic to extract so large a revenue from a Colony situated as Hongkong is. The trade, which now affords a Yearly Revenue of more than Five Millions Sterling to Great Britain, Two or Three Millions to British India, and an advantageous traffic to and from other British Possessions, is not carried on here, but almost entirely from other ports and places in the Empire of China. But for the protection of that most important trade, Hong-kong became, as we have already stated, a British settlement. The Right Honourable Mr Gladstone, then Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, stated in 1846, that the occupation of the island was decided on solely and exclusively with a view to commercial interests, for the security of commerce, and for the benefit of those engaged in the trade with China—shewing that Her Majesty's Government at that time agreed with us in the view we entertain on the subject. The little trade that does exist here is not natural to Hongkong—it consists chiefly in the trans-shipment of goods, affording no revenue to the Colony; and but for the residence here of the few Mercantile Houses, not only this trade, but the vessels that call here on their arrival from and departure to sea, and the small craft that may be considered to belong to the port, would in a great measure disappear. We concur, therefore, entirely with Lord Sandon and the Committee in their report to the House of Commons, in thinking that "it is not right that the burden of maintaining that, which is rather a post for general trade in the China seas, than a Colony in the ordinary sense, should be thrown in any great degree on the merchants or other persons who may be resident upon it.”
15. We do not ask to be exempt from reasonable taxation, but that it should be reduced; that it should be more equitably levied; and that it should not be incommensurate with the benefits we receive from being settlers; and further, that we should have some voice in the expenditure of the money collected.
16. We have found Your Excellency, during the short period you have been amongst us, desirous of doing all in your power to promote the interests of the Colony and of the community; and we feel confident that you will do us the justice to admit that the facts we have brought forward and the views we have expressed are not more than our present position here, and the circumstances connected with it, call for.
17. We have endeavoured to show Your Excellency that, in the opinion of ourselves and others, the expenses of this settlement should chiefly fall upon the Trade existing between this Empire and Great Britain and her possessions; and that under no circumstances should those residing here be taxed in excess of the benefits they receive.
18. We trust Her Majesty's Government will be inclined to view the subject in a favourable light; and in consideration of the objects for which this settlement was established, in consideration of the large sums already laid out by the Civil and Military Departments of Government, as well as by private individuals,—we cannot doubt that Her Majesty's Government will be anxious to use every endeavour to promote the interests and prosperity of the settlement, and which, as so justly stated in the Report of the Select Committee, can only prosper under the greatest amount of freedom of intercourse and traffic.
We have the honour,
for
(Signed) Jardine Matheson & Co.
Dent & Co.
Macvicar
A. G. Carter
Lindsay & Co.
Bush & Co.
Jamieson Edger
F. Solomon & Co.