372
22
Land Sales owing to the continued building development brought in a total of $3,177,807 or $1,677,807 over the Estimate. This
is second to the record year of 1923 when $3,488,797 was re- ceived. Expenditure was restricted to services absolutely es- sential to the administration of the Colony and notwithstand- ing the low dollar the original estimates were only exceeded by $1,372,929. England's departure from the gold standard in September made a considerable difference to Hong Kong and reduced the dollar equivalent of the Colony's sterling commit- ments during the last quarter. This helped materially. In ad- dition the payment of officers on sterling salaries on the half and half principle mentioned above, saved the Treasury approximately $1,100,000 throughout the year,
30. Remittances from abroad continued to flow into the Colony during 1931 but not to the same extent as in 1929 and 1930. Bankers fixed deposit rates at the beginning of the year were about 2% for renewals of year money. No interest was paid on new short money. In October 2% and in special cases a little more was again obtainable for 12 months. There is still a large amount of surplus funds in the Colony available for in- vestment, The silver dollars which in 1930 appcared to be a serious embarrassment have now been absorbed. The coins have to some extent gone into circulation in replacement of dollar notes which are no longer issued but by far the greater part has been absorbed in the silver reserve of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank whose note issue has shewn an expansion com- mensurate with public demands.
31. Trade as a whole in Hong Kong may be described as about the same with a quieter tendency. From statistics how- ever, the import trade would appear to have been slightly better than in 1930. The export trade did not shew any signs of increasing in spite of the low dollar. The political troubles in China were added to by serious floods during the earlier part of the year in the Southern Provinces and later on by the over- flowing of the Yangtse River causing disease and famine and finally the Chinese tariffs were increased. A feature worth recording was the boycott of Japanese goods during the last quarter of the year. The effect of this was a large falling off in imports from Japan which together with the higher dollar during the last three months deflected the trade in piece goods to the United Kingdom. It is indeed a source of satisfaction to record how well Hong Kong has stood up against world depression and unrest.
23
32. The year from a Treasurer's point of view has been most difficult and arduous. A shilling dollar in January and every prospect of a very large deficit by December called for the greatest care in expenditure. The subsequent increases in taxa. tion especially in the many minor licences and fees as enumer- ated earlier in this report were not done without a great deal of care and consideration.
THE TREASURY,
Hong Kong, 5th May, 1932.
EDWIN TAYLOR,
Treasurer.
373