60
May, 1905, and that in the latter half of the year ships
under the Japanese flag recommenced ruming to this Colony.
That the figures for the whole year represented abnormal
conditions during the first part of it is evidenced by a
decrease of 160 British Ocean-going Steamers with 220,565
registered tonnage in the first quarter of 1906 compared
with the first quarter of 1905 and an increase of 27
Foreign Ships with 126,220 registered tonnage in the same
period. The special circumstances of the war seem therefore
merely temporarily to have arrested the decline in the
proportion of British to Foreign Ocean-going shipping
which has been continuous since the year 1894.
3.
As has frequently been reported
the trade returns, as far as they deal with the various
commodities imported and exported, are compiled from in-
-formation voluntarily supplied by Ships' Officers and
Agents and are not to be relied on. Their inaccuracy is
evidenced by the fact that an abnormal increase of 51.5
per centum in the amount of sugar imported this year, a8
compared with the importation in 1904, is to be attributed
to the compulsory returns which are required under the
Sugar Convention Ordinances of 1904 and 1905, it having
been