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tion with which the residents of Hong Kong view a demand made upon them on account of expenses incurred almost entirely for the protection of other settlements in the East, and the general aims of Her Majesty's Government.
Your memorialists, moreover, do not come before you representing a community outlaying the total of their own taxation for the exclusive benefit of their own settlement, but in the exceedingly large amounts disbursed, and still to be laid out on its gaol, Courts of Justice, (intended) mint, and the annual outlay for the fixed establishments connected therewith, important services are rendered to Imperial interests as well as to the British community resident at the treaty ports of China and Japan.
In addition to this fact your memorialists would also state that they have an indirect, but heavy annual tax imposed upon them by the presence of the military establishments before alluded to.
These establishments exist in the best and most desirable portion of Victoria, occupying a large proportion of its limited level ground, and in consequence, to provide accommodation for the increased number of foreign and Chinese residents, the hills have to be ascended, levels cut, extensive embankments made, labour and building materials procured at increased cost, and the revenues of the colony are seriously affected (the rental of the hill ground being comparatively slight) by the loss of ground rent resulting from the military occupation of the extremely valuable sites in question; this dimunition of colonial income, alone equal to more than a moiety of the contribution now under discussion, has to be made good in some form by your memorialists.
The military occupation of the land above referred to has also proved otherwise detrimental to some colonial interests; a few years ago the local Government determined that a praya or roadway should be constructed along the sea face of the town at the expense of the marine lot holders, whose property was supposed to be increased in value by the existence of this thoroughfare, but to the present day, the utility of the praya as a roadway from the east to the west of Victoria is destroyed, and adjacent property deteriorated, by the fact of the non-construction of that which should be its central portion fronting buildings in Imperial occupation.
Your memorialists most earnestly desire it to be understood that these remarks are made in no captious spirit, but simply with a desire of recording the fact that while Her Majesty's Government have found it necessary for purposes of general Eastern policy to station a garrison, with its adjuncts upon this island, it has not been done without specially subjecting your memorialists to an indirect impost, which, while it has been cheerfully borne they trust is not about to be increased.
And your memorialists most earnestly urge that the colony is not in a position to bear the burden of this contribution without grievous injury to its present and future interests, inasmuch as its resources are exceedingly limited in consequence of the totally unproductive character of the island, and the poverty of the bulk of its inhabitants. The Chinese numbering about 120,000 and forming 99 per cent. of the whole population are, as a class, of the poorest. Nearly 50,000 of them inhabit boats or are otherwise so unremuneratively employed as to be almost, if not quite, beyond the pale of taxation, whilst the majority of the remainder are only artisans earning humble wages or small shopkeepers in a way of business far from lucrative. So true is this that few of the latter can, with the enormous expenses of living here, afford to maintain their wives and families in Hong Kong, but keep them in the adjacent country or in Canton, where the expenses compared with this place are as 1 to 10. Considering, therefore, that at the present moment an annual revenue of about 600,000 dollars is collected by the local Government principally, if not entirely from some 1,500 lesses of crown land, and the tenants of 6,000 houses of which only 690 are above the yearly value of 1001.; it follows that a burden is already borne by your memorialists which they respectfully submit is far from light, and they would further state that the requirements of the colony for the new public works before mentioned, and the repair of others more or less in a state of decay, are already in excess of its surplus funds and the aid afforded by its current revenue.
His Excellency the Governor, in his previously-mentioned despatch, has (366)
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