# 1841-1886
## STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
### 247
### 109
## HONG KONG.
### No. 18.
Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir JOHN BOWRING to the Right Honourable Sir EDWARD B. LYTTON, Bart., M.P.
Government Offices, Victoria, Hong Kong, 29th March 1859.
(No. 54.) SIR,
I HAVE now the honour to forward to you the Blue Book of this colony for the year 1858. I venture to anticipate your satisfaction with the results which the volume records, and trust that the present position and progress of the colony, and its bright prospects for the future, will enable you to approve of the general conduct of the government during the five years in which I have been honoured with its charge.
2. As the period is now approaching when I am to surrender my trust into other hands I deem myself justified in laying before you the statistics of my administration, and in comparing the five years which preceded that administration with the five years succeeding.
3. The following are the Returns of Revenue and Expenditure, Parliamentary Grants, Population, and Shipping, from the years 1849 to 1858 inclusive:
### TABLE showing the REVENUE and EXPENDITURE OF HONG KONG, PARLIAMENTARY GRANTS, POPULATION, and SHIPPING for the years from 1849 to 1858 inclusive.
Years Revenue Parliamentary Grant Total Income Expenditure Population Shipping 1849 £23,617 3s. £25,000 £48,617 3s. £29,507 4s. Nos. 23,721 Tons. 203,465 1850 £23,526 16s. £20,000 £49,526 16s. £34,314 12s. 3d. Nos. 30,064 Tons. 299,009 1851 £23,721 7s. 6d. £15,500 £39,221 7s. 6d. £33,292 0s. Nos. 32,983 Tons. 377,084 1852 £21,331 1s. 8d. £33,291 8d. £34,115 7s. 6d. Nos. 39,017 Tons. 443,383 1853 £24,700 6s. 3d. £12,000 £36,418 12s. £34,765 12s. 9d. Nos. 39,017 Tons. 447,053 Total for 5 years £116,806 15s. 12d. £72,500 £189,306 15s. 12d. £165,989 16s. 3d. Average per Annum £23,379 7s. £14,500 £37,861 7s. £33,197 19s. 3d. 1854 £27,045 3s. £27,045 3s. £40,813 11s. 2d. Nos. 65,497 Tons. 604,570 1855 £47,973 11s. £16,340 £64,313 11s. £42,426 6s. 5d. Nos. 71,730 Tons. 611,307 1856 £62,476 9s. 8d. £4,400 £66,876 9s. 8d. £58,842 2s. 7d. Nos. 77,094 Tons. 541,063 1857 £62,079 8s. 17d. £10,000 £72,470 9s. 8d. £62,079 8s. 17d. Nos. 75,503 Tons. 716,476 1858 £61,323 3s. 4d. £10,000 £71,323 3s. 4d. £49,270 9s. 1d. Nos. 72,546 Tons. 623,354 Total for 5 years £231,897 15s. £40,740 £272,637 15s. £253,432 4s. Average per Annum £46,367 11s. £8,801 £54,527 11s. £50,686 8s.* For measures of precaution and defence.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hong Kong, 9th March 1859.
(Signed)
W. T. MERCER,
Colonial Secretary.
4. I have placed among the Parliamentary grants the two sums amounting to £20,000 voted in 1857 and 1858, but as they are on account of special objects, and not for the ordinary services of the colony, I may state that the Imperial assistance should be estimated at nil since 1854, or if averaged over the five years of my government it amounts to £8,801 per annum, in contrast to an average of £16,340 for the five years preceding.
5. As regards the ordinary revenue it has been doubled during my administration, and the last year of my government, as compared with the last year of my predecessor, presents an increase of £37,776, or more than 150 per cent.
6. The total income of the colony (including Parliamentary grants) presents an average augmentation of £11,528, being about 30 per cent., but taking the last year of the ...