1841-1886
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT
237
HONG KONG,
No. $7.
EXTRACT of DESPATCH from Governor Sir JOHN BOWRING to the Right Hon. HENRY
LABOUCHERE, M.P.
Government Offices, Victoria, Hong Kong, March 25, 1858.
(Received May 21, 1858.)
I HAVE the honour to lay before you the Blue Book of this colony for 1857, and to call your attention to the observations thereon of the Acting Colonial Secretary, who has during the past year rendered very valuable and active service in bringing about a state of things which I hope will be deemed satisfactory, while at the same time I venture to state that various changes now in progress or in contemplation will add to the financial prosperity, and advance the good government of this growing and improving settlement.
It may well be a subject of congratulation that with so little, and I hope it will ultimately prove with no pecuniary sacrifice, we have passed through a crisis which warranted much anxiety and apprehension. If the Executive was armed with strong powers for the defence and protection of the colony, I may well aver these powers have been used with moderation, that the ordinary course of judicature has not been interrupted, that the public tranquillity has been admirably preserved, and that substantial meliorations in most of the departments of administration have signalized the period on which I have now to report.
If the claims to some imperial grant as compensation for heavy charges imposed on the colony for imperial purposes shall be recognized by Her Majesty's Government, our public works will be carried on with an activity which local resources will not allow. Our market system is undergoing a thorough revision, and new and convenient market