HONG KONG, 1898.
32
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL
The public works undertaken during the year have been extensive, and are expected to be of permanent value. The Praya Reclamation is still being proceeded with, and is adding to the beauty as well as to the value of the City of Victoria.
Rents, wages, and the price of food have for some time past been on a rapid increase. The wages of coolies are about seven or eight dollars a month, and of house servants twelve to twenty, whereas in Canton the same class of servants can still be hired for six dollars and seven dollars respectively.
The climate of Hong Kong for five months in the year is very good, though the temperature is rather subject to sudden fluctuations. The summer months are trying to Europeans owing to the damp heat.
It does not appear that there are very many available openings for white labour; and it would not be advisable to emigrate to this Colony without some definite prospect of employment.
Openings for the investment of capital, if we except trade investments, have perhaps hitherto been rather restricted; but in view of the development of the Kowloon Extension there will probably be openings for capital in the future.
The social condition of the Colony is fairly satisfactory. No complaint can be made of the attendance of the Chinese at the numerous schools which exist primarily for their benefit, and all the pupils seem anxious to acquire a good working knowledge of the English language.
The year 1898 was marked by the retirement of my predecessor, Sir William Robinson, G.C.M.G., who is to be congratulated on the amelioration in the general condition of the Colony during his administration of the Government. He left the Colony in February, 1898, and from that date until my arrival towards the close of the year the Government was administered by Major-General Wilson Black, who, in his capacity as General Officer Commanding the Forces, reached the limit of his term of office at the same time. He was succeeded in his military command by Major-General Gascoigne, C.M.G., who arrived in the Colony on Christmas Day. During a great part of the year the Colonial Secretary, Mr. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, C.M.G., was absent from his post and his place was taken, as Acting Colonial Secretary, by Mr. T. Sercombe Smith. The only other change of importance in the public service of the Colony consisted in the resignation of Mr. H. E. Wodehouse, C.M.G., after a long and meritorious service in various offices in the Civil Service.
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL.
33
I arrived in Hong Kong on the 25th November and assumed the administration of the Government. I am informed on what I consider excellent authority that the commercial condition of the Colony was never more satisfactory. The value of property is steadily increasing, and of the companies quoted in the weekly share lists more than 80 per cent. of the shares are quoted above par. What the ultimate results of the political events in the Far East during the year 1898 may be as regards the trade of this Colony I know too little at present to forecast, but I see no ground for apprehension that Hong Kong will not continue to enjoy in the future the prosperity that the energy of her merchants has won for her in the present.
I have, &c.,
HENRY A. BLAKE,
Governor.
3994-5
0
512