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Indisputably, therefore, Hong Kong is one of the greatest shipping ports in the world; and, although the anti-British boycott of 1925 and 1926 caused a decrease in the number and tonnage of the shipping entered and cleared at Hong Kong, there is every reason to believe that this set-back is only temporary and that a rapid recovery will be made as soon as normal trading conditions in China can be restored.
The achievement of Hong Kong in financing its amazing develop- ment during the past thirty years by means of its annual revenue, and without recourse to borrowing, is unexcelled in any part of the British Empire. In 1893 the Colony raised a loan of £200,000 at 3 per cent. interest and spent it chiefly on water-works and on resuming insanitary properties at Tai-ping-shan. By 1898 the whole of this loan had been expended. Since then all public works in the Colony, both ordinary and extraordinary, have been paid for from current revenue, with the exception of the construction of the British section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, which was financed by a sterling loan raised in 1906. It is worth while to pause a minute and to reflect what this means. It means that the whole of the development in the Kowloon peninsula has been paid for from current revenue. This development has been nothing less than the transformation of a rural district into a large modern, town, where in years to come it is not unlikely that a million or more persons will reside. This town has been provided with an ample water supply, with a splendid road system, with drainage and sewerage, with a hospital, with fine police stations at Yaumati, Shamshuipo and Kowloon City and with a breakwater and typhoon shelter at Mongkoktsui. All public works in the New Territories, except the railway, have been paid for out of current revenue. In broad outline this means that, without raising any loan, we have made a detailed cadastral and contour survey of the New Territories, showing every paddy field and every house con- tained therein; we have built the Taipo Road and the road via Castle Peak to Fanling and across to Shataukok: we have erected all the police stations and public buildings in the New Territories; we have extended the Government telephone system throughout the Territories; we have made the Shamshuipo reclamation and materially assisted in the Kowloon Tong Development Scheme. Meanwhile on Hong Kong Island itself we have constructed a system of first class motor-roads. We have We have built the magnificent Tytamtuk waterworks. participated in the original Praya Reclamation and the Praya East reclamation. We have done much drainage and harbour dredging work. We have built the Wireless Station at Cape d'Aguilar, the Blake Pier and the Queen's Pier. We have also erected a large number of excellent and spacious buildings, chief among which are the Supreme Court, the Post Office Building with the Government Offices therein, the Fire Brigade Station with the Government Offices therein, the King's College, the Victoria Hospital extension, tha
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