and
the extension of Steam
years ago; communication to Shen
Shanghai will of course work further change
Hong Kong
Can't Move.
have a
Legitimate junk trade, worth a name, until the clauses of the Supplementary
Treaty limiting the Junk Trade be
abrogated.
Sugar
districts and
This Colony
is under the
Treaty,
present punishable, as far
as the native is concerned, with
death and confiscation of goods. The
smuggling trade is, at present, too insignificant
to awaken the jealousy of the Chinese
Government; were it important our Treaty
justifies their interference with it at once.
Thus the influence of the great houses deprives this Colony of a share in the Opium Trade, and the Supplementary Treaty renders it illegal to have
any
Junk trade, save with ports, where
361
we do not want it, as our own ships frequent
them,
and our own Merchants conduct the
trade.
But were - even were Opium smuggling legalised)
and the invidious clauses annulled, we
never could have a Colonial Trade in
any
produce of China),
for the reasons
given
in the introductory letter page,
that they
would not
bring at
their own risk the
precious
trade to carry.
The present Junk trade is quite
irregular
and
adventitious
no estimate
can be made of its value or extent.
As a whaling station,
Hong Kong
has been frequented
by many ships in 1845,
which feared to go to the Sandwich
Islands or the Pacific Ports, lest their
crew
should desert to California:
Page 361