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conversation, I do not feel at liberty to repeat it. I should only weary the Council if I were to dilate further on this branch of the subject, but before leaving it I would like to draw attention to a very significant circumstance, and that is that the manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank recently stated in public that in the month in which he was speaking the Bank had received more applications for bank shares than had been received in any single previous month during the whole period of his connection with the Bank. What inference are we to draw from these circumstances? That there is a general depletion and stagnation of legitimate business? Trade is usually considered a good thing to have and it would seem that we have it in abundance; shipping has often been termed—especially by the hon. member who represents the Chamber of Commerce—as the "life-blood of the colony"—if so the colony is not in any present danger from anaemia; and the circumstance mentioned by the manager of our principal bank points to no lack of general confidence. The inference that I draw is that while individuals have in recent years lost heavily by gambling, the condition of the community at large is sound and progressive.
Turning now to indications from revenue, what do we find? In 1882 the revenue was $311,817; for the five years ending with 1886 it averaged $1,199,147, and for the following years ending with 1891 it averaged $1,863,229.
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1890 the revenue exceeded that of 1889 by $154,544; the revenue for 1891 exceeded that for 1890 by $13,443, and it can be said with certainty that the revenue for the current year will exceed that of 1891. So far as that is up to the moment at which I am speaking, I can find no evidence of a shrinking, dwindling revenue; on the contrary, what I find is a continuously expanding revenue.
It would unduly tax the indulgence of the Council if I were to proceed to analyse the component details of the revenue. I have done so for my own satisfaction and the result has served to confirm the impression that the annually increasing revenue connotes a steady increase of the prosperity of the community taken as a whole. The year 1891 has been described as a year of terrible depression: so far as the revenue returns afford a criterion, the last would appear to be that during that year, as also in 1890 and 1889, in spite of some persons in the colony having lost a lamentable amount of money through speculation, the colony as a whole progressed. The revenue exclusive of land sales for 1889, 1890, and 1891 averaged $1,930,769; for 1891, it was $1,973,541; for 1892 it was only $1,557,300, and in 1887 it was $1,427,483. As already stated the average revenue, including land sales, for the five years ending with 1886, was $1,291,407. As compared with this the revenue, excluding land sales, for 1891—which we are told was a year of terrible depression—was $1,973,540, which shows an increase over the average revenue for 1882-6, including land sales, of more than 50 per cent. So much for the past and present.
And lastly, in reference to this branch of the question, I would solicit Your Lordship's very especial attention to the significant returns quoted by the Colonial Secretary speaking to the Loan Bill, under the heading of revenue.
"Assessed rates and taxes," speaking to Supply in Committee I showed that the colony, taken as a whole, had progressed and was bound to continue to progress and I grounded my statement largely but not exclusively on the revenue returns. It was then necessary only to state the broad results that the revenue had more than sufficed to meet the ordinary expenditure and that it had continuously increased, and although it is impossible within the limits of a speech to set out all the component details it may be well for me now to supplement my statement by drawing attention to some of the more important items. Postage receipts are generally recognised as affording some criterion of the condition of the community. They have increased in Hong Kong during the ten years from 1882 to 1891 from $100,793 in 1883 to $144,777 in 1891, showing an increase of about 40 per cent, and that in spite of large reductions in the postal rates during that period. The item "Markets" again furnishes some data as regards a large section of the community. It has increased from $37,950 in 1883 to $58,592 in 1890 and $96,354 in 1891, showing an increase in the last over the first year of over 66 per cent.
Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD—Indirect taxation.