CO 129.8 Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941 PAPERS RELATING TO THE
nightly engaged in plundering the town. In the beginning of October 1843, the Chinese robbers posted a counter proclamation on the gate of No. 1, Market-place, in the chief thoroughfare, declaring that if they left the island themselves, they would "compel others to do so," taking with them their merchandise and property, and warning people to be cautious how they ventured out after dark, lest they met with some unexpected harm; at the same time, the Government coal depôts were set on fire; the mat barracks of the 41st Regiment, and the Market-place, No. 1, were attempted to be burned; and at noon a number of Chinamen, armed with knives, entered the market-place, threatened all around, wounded a European policeman, and then walked away unmolested. The number of prisoners in the gaol of Hong Kong averaged, during 1843-44, from 60 to 90 a month; nearly every prisoner was Chinese, and the crimes with which they were charged were invariably piracy, murder, burglary, robbery, &c. There has been no diminution of crime; the number of prisoners in the gaol have increased; and the nightly robberies are as frequent, if not more so, than they were three years ago. The shopkeepers do not remain more than a few months on the island, when another set takes their place. There is, in fact, a continual shifting of a Bedouin sort of population, whose migratory, predatory, gambling and dissolute habits, utterly unfit them for continuous industry, and render them not only useless but highly injurious subjects in the attempt to form a new colony. There are no other inhabitants. A few lascars seek employment in ships. The European inhabitants, independent of those in the employ of Government, consist of members of about 12 mercantile houses, and their clerks. A few persons have arrived here from New South Wales to try and better their fortune, many of whom would be glad to return thither.
The principal mercantile firms are those engaged in the opium trade, who have removed hither from Macao, as a safer position for an opium depot, and which they frankly admit is the only trade Hong Kong will ever possess. The opium belonging to the two principal firms is not, however, lodged on shore, it is kept in "receiving ships," the "Hormanjee Bomanjee," belonging to Jardine, Matheson & Co., and the "John Barry," belonging to Dent & Co. Even the money used by those firms is not entrusted on shore, but is kept in the receiving ships; and the three or four others partially engaged in the opium trade carry on this business in Hong Kong; the tea trade is carried on distinctly at Canton, by members of the firms resident there. Excepting the six firms engaged in the opium trade, the other six houses are small, and are principally agents for manufactures, &c. in Great Britain. The expense of establishments, the high rate of interest on money, and the want of trade, will, it is said, probably ere long compel the removal or breaking up of several of the small houses. There is scarcely a firm in the island but would, I understand, be glad to get back half the money they have expended in the colony, and retire from the place. A sort of hallucination seems to have seized those who built houses here; they thought that Hong Kong would rapidly out-rival Singapore, and become the Tyre or Carthage of the eastern hemisphere. Three years' residence, and the experience thence derived, have materially sobered their views. Unfortunately the Government of the colony fostered the delusion respecting the colony. The leading Government officers bought land, built houses or bazaars, which they rented out at high rates, and the public money was lavished in the most extraordinary manner, building up, and pulling down temporary structures, making zigzag bridle-paths over the hills and mountains, and forming the "Queen's Road" of about three to four miles long, on which about 180,000 dollars have been expended, but which is not passable for half the year. The straggling settlement called Victoria, built along the "Queen's Road," was dignified with the name of "city;" and it was declared on the highest authority, that Hong Kong would contain a population "equal to that of ancient Rome."
The Surveyor-general, in an official report to Sir Henry Pottinger of 22 pages, dated 6th July 1843, proposed building an entirely new town or city in the Woonichung Valley (which may be aptly called "the valley of death"), with a grand canal, and many branch canals, &c. &c. &c.; two ranges of terraces of houses, &c. &c., courts of law, and various other offices; acclimatising barracks; additions to the present Government House for the secretaries and personal staff of the Governor, isolated from all other buildings; a space of land to be reclaimed from the sea for a public landing-place, with an esplanade or public walk; a magnificent promenade of four miles, to be made on ground now covered by the sea, which was to be excluded by a sea wall, at a cost of 35 dollars per lineal yard, exclusive of filling in, &c.; a circular road, over hills and ravines, round the entire island, &c. &c., adapted for carriages, and moving troops with speed and facility to any part of the island where they may happen to be required for the protection of the different villages (these villages, be it remembered, containing nothing but a few hundreds of a thieving, piratical population). I refer to the Government archives for these and other most ridiculous projects, which none but the wildest theorists could have projected or entertained.
800,
On the 17th December 1843, the Surveyor-general laid before Sir Henry Pottinger the elevation of a building for a Government office, &c., "with a front of 360 feet in length by 50 feet in depth, and which would probably cost 30,000 l. sterling." There seemed to be the greatest possible desire to spend a large part of the Chinese indemnity money on this wretched, barren, unhealthy, and useless rock, which the whole wealth, energy, and talent of England would never render habitable, or creditable as a colony to the British name.
In