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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT
Education.
6. The Board of Education has not shown much result as yet, but I hope and trust that Mr. Stewart's zeal will meet eventually with the success it deserves.
7. An assistant master has been applied for, and the proposal is under consideration. 8. The thanks of the Government are due to the Bishop of Victoria and the other gentlemen who give their gratuitous services to the cause, by acting as members of the Board of Education.
Health.
9. The sanitary condition of the Island has been all that could be desired, and the Colonial Surgeon's report merits attention.
10. There are some subjects on which I cannot altogether report with satisfaction.
Post Office.
11. The postal service is conducted under considerable difficulty, especially the packet agency at Shanghae, concerning which it may be necessary to address your Grace hereafter in a separate despatch. I have caused the report of the Postmaster General on the postal revenue for the year to be inserted in the Appendix to the Blue Book.
Police.
12. The experiment of recruiting in India for the police force has not fully answered the expectation formed of it, but the steps taken to correct the defects that showed themselves have apparently been to some extent successful.
Kowloon and Pokfoolum.
13. The delay in the settlement of Kowloon has acted injuriously on the Colony in certain respects, but in one it has been of assistance, for, owing to the improbability of soon procuring sites at Kowloon, a useful and ornamental villa-settlement has sprung up at Pokfoolum on this Island.
Naval Head Quarters.
14. A new dock at Aberdeen for the use of Her Majesty's Navy has been projected, and received the approval of the Lords of the Admiralty. This, with the possible cessation of employment for Her Majesty's ships in Japan and the neighbourhood of Shanghae, will render Hong Kong in reality, and not in name only, what it was always intended to be, the head quarters of our navy in China.
Defences.
15. Thus the entire absence of land defences for this city and harbour (which has lately engaged attention) will be made of less moment, though it is represented by competent authority that land batteries are necessary, in aid of such defence as would be afforded by ships of war.
Prosperity of Hong Kong, and its causes.
16. On the whole I am enabled at this date to endorse and confirm the various reports made by me on the annual Blue Book of Hong Kong for some years past, especially that which accompanies the book for 1858.
17. Year by year the Colony continues to improve its political and its commercial status, while its position as a post of general convenience is as readily admitted now as heretofore.
18. Something of this prosperity is due to geographical location, something to accidental circumstances, and a considerable part to the professional enterprise of British and Foreign merchants.
19. But there is one thing behind these. Had the Chinese themselves kept aloof, commercial enterprise would have effected little; but the natives of the mainland flocked to Hong Kong in crowds, after some few years' experience or observation of it.
20. Doubtless they did so from seeing means of trade, but plainly also because they saw here a difference in Government, and consequently a superiority in British over Chinese forms.