The General Abstract will shew, that the Revenue revived in Hongkong, and amounted in all to £247045.5.3¾ and gives the Particular of the various items forming that sum.
From the Comparative Statement it will be seen, that the increase in the Revenue of 1854 as compared with that of previous years has been £23,417, 74% excepting the years! 1846 and 1847, the Revenue of last year has been greater than during any of the previous years, and by in the first year 1846 it was exceeded only £4, but if it is considered that the Opium Farm or Monopoly produced in that year £4118, and if the item of Opium was left out of the accounts, the Receipt in 1854 under all the other heads exceed the like Receipts of 1846 by £2217.
As compared with 1847 when the Revenue reached £31,190, the apparent decrease in 1854 would be £11,145, but if it is taken into account, that during that year a very large amount of arrears of Land Rents due for previous years (ever since 1843) had been recovered principally through the court, and by other means; that at the close of that year Land producing not less than £1149 per annum was resumed at the request of the holders, after they had paid up the arrears due thereon [vide Despatches N° 73 of 1857 and N° 6 of 1848 to the Secretary of State for the Colonies] further that the Receipts for the Opium Farm abolished on the 12th August of that year and the Opium Licenses amounted (on account of the existence of the Opium Farm during the...
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