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MEETING OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
The following Report, extracted from the Daily Press, is published for general information,
A Meeting of the Legislative Council was held on Thursday, the 6th November, 1879. There were present
His Excellency Governor POPE HENNESSY, C.M.G. Honourable Sir JoUN SMALE, (Chief Justice). Honourable W. H. MARSH, (Colonial Secretary). Honourable J. RUSSELL, (Acting Attorney General). Honourable M. S. TONNOCHY, (Colonial Treasurer). Honourable P. RYRIE.
Honourable W. KESWICK,
Honourable J. M. PRICE.
MINUTES.
The minutes of the last two Meetings were read and confirmed.
THE COMMERCE AND FINANCES OF THE COLONY.
HIS EXCELLENCY.-Gentlemen, in opening what I may call the session of 1879-80 and laying before you the Estimates for 1880 my first duty is to briefly refer to the financial statement I made last year when introducing the Estimates for 1879. In September, 1878, I ventured to anticipate that the prosperity of the Colony of Hongkong would be shown at the end of that year by the shipping returns. This is one of the largest depôts of shipping in the world and the prosperity of the Colony is best gauged, no doubt, by the amount of shipping that comes into and leaves the harbour. In spite of commercial depression elsewhere, I thought we should have no reason to despair of the year 1878. It will be satisfactory for you to know that so far my anticipations have proved to be correct, and that the tonnage of vessels recorded as entering Hongkong in the year 1878 exceeds the tonnage that has been hitherto recorded in any year in the history of this Colony. I find in the year 1875 the total tonnage was 3,326,774, in 1876 this rose to 3,900,891, in 1877 it was 4,244,543, and in 1878 it reached 4,352,668; and the Harbour Master says that his returns show that the total tonnage entered and cleared at his office in 1878 was 8,982,593. The total tonnage cleared and entered in the year 1877 was 8,594,348, showing au increase of 388,245 tons. Now, to enable us to estimate the magni- tude of this commercial movement it is natural enough to compare it with the total tonnage entered and cleared in the United Kingdom, and I find that according to the last authentic returns before me that it amounted in the year 1877 to 51,531,000, whereas ours in 1878 was 8,982,000. In other words our tonnage, we may safely say, was something like one-sixth of the total tonnage of the United Kingdom. And another fact of interest is this, that if you endeavour to ascertain, which we cannot do here with accuracy, what is the value of this depôt trade, we find that in England, where they can do so, the total value of imports and exports amounted to £646,000,000, and as our tonnage is something like one-sixth of what it is in the United Kingdom, I think a predecessor of mine who estimated the value of trade of this Colony inwards and outwards at £100,000,000 was not far off the mark. And another gentleman who has a large knowledge of the commercial history and position of this Colony, Mr. GRANVILLE SHARP, in the early part of 1877, before I arrived in the Colony, printed a little state- ment respecting the commercial resources of the Colony, containing statistics of the leading import and export trade of Hongkong by which the probable accuracy of this estimate is confirmed. So far we have, therefore, no reason to complain of the year 1878. that that was the year in which it was asserted, by some otherwise highly intelligent gentlemen, that And I may, perhaps, remind the Council there was great insecurity of property in the Colony owing to a policy of undue leniency on the part of the local Government towards the criminal classes. flourishing
We now know, however that, as far as a
revenue and a flourishing commerce are any indications of general security, the result has
not been unsatisfactory.