1841-1886
73
#d
d.
STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS. '147'
4157, must deal. HONG KONG! Plumperi ni yule mutor
**: 11
(No. 37.) cast al
}
No. 33, musun Lugdig, opus Aliyidai?I Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir J. F. DAVIS, Bart to the Right
Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE.
SIR,
**94
Victoria, Hong-Kong ****April 11, 1846.
I HAVE the honour to forward the "Blue Book" of Hong-Kong for the year 1845, as drawn up by the Colonial Secretary.
Under the head of Revenue it is satisfactory to observe an increase from Revenue. 95341. 12s. 6d. (the collection for the previous year) to 22,242l. 8s. 1d., the income of the past. In my separate reports on the revenue of this colony, I have detailed the chief causes of increase, and at Page 22 of the "Blue Book" is a comparative view of each item for the two years.
The receipt from Government lands, which may now be estimated to afford an income of about 13,000l., cannot be expected rapidly to increase, as most of the available spots at present in demand have been disposed of. With the progress of the colony a further demand may probably arise, calling for building sites in the neighbourhood of the town; but the rates at which allotments were at first sold must not be expected for the future.
The police assessment, which is estimated to yield about 2000l. per annum, must be expected to become more productive with the increase of tenements.
Next to the Crown leases, the licenses and excise farms (as that for opium) are the most productive sources of revenue, and like those at Singapore should increase with the progress of the place.
It will be an early object with me to carry out the proposed ordinance for a duty on wines, spirits, and fermented liquors; but the chief difficulty attending the execution of this project is the total absence of a custom-house establishment in the free port of Hong-Kong; and it therefore may be apprehended that the machinery expressly necessary for the collection of the tax will tend to render its net produce comparatively small.
Upon the whole there is fair reason to anticipate that the fixed revenue may be raised to about 30,000l. per annum, and that when the expenses incidental to the first formation of the colony have been defrayed, the annual receipts will be found nearly equal to the annual civil disbursements.
The comparative expenditure for 1845 exhibits an apparent increase beyond Expenditure. 1844, which is mainly owing to the colonial establishment having regularly commenced only with the month of May, 1844, thus rendering 1845 the first integral year for which a return has been made. The heaviest items of expense are the police establishments and the judicial department, together amounting to nearly one-half of the entire civil charges of the colony.
I have already in my Despatch, No. 35, of the 13th instant, suggested a reduction in the surveyor-general's department, and, as opportunities occur, other retrenchments may hereafter be effected.
In the same Despatch I have reported, that while the sum voted in Parliament for the public service in China (including the consular establishments) for the year 1845-6 was 80,000l., the actual charge has been 64,543l., after deducting the revenue raised in this colony.
The civil expenditure, on account of public works during 1845, has been Public works. 26,800l., while that under the ordnance department appears as 57,807l. Both of these are of course only temporary charges, incidental to a newly established colony.
The progress of buildings and improvements, public and private, during the last eighteen months, has been truly surprising, and could not have taken place except for the ready command of the cheap and efficient labour of the Chinese. The execution of the buildings is such as can be rarely met with in any colony. A good road now extends within five miles of the circumference of the island, 18 miles being completed out of 23, and another road crosses the island from Victoria to Stanley. The excellent contour survey of Hong-Kong made by the engineer department leaves nothing to be desired on that point.
The drainage of the town, so important on every account, may be considered as nearly completed.