1841-1886
PAPERS RELATING TO
Scotland (that is, 156,000) at the time of the union with England in the reign of Queen Anne. This revenue defrays the whole cost of the civil government, including the police, the public works, the management of the port and shipping, the light-houses, &c., and also furnishes an annual military contribution of twenty thousand pounds (20,000l.) to the Imperial Government.
8. It is, moreover, to be noted that Hong Kong is one of the very few communities in the world which is absolutely without a public debt. On the contrary, Hong Kong possesses a balance fund, invested at interest, and amounting on the 31st December ultimo to $1,148,664, or 209,000l.; that is, nearly equal to one year's revenue. The surplus balance on the revenue of 1882 amounted to $114,712, or above 20,000l.
9. As Hong Kong is a free port it is impossible to obtain accurate statistics of the imports and exports, but the great value of the trade with which it is connected may be estimated from the amount of shipping which (as was stated above) annually enters and leaves the harbour. In fact, Hong Kong is the centre of Eastern commerce in many kinds of European, Asiatic, and American goods, and the transactions of the trade in silk and tea are mainly controlled by the mercantile firms of which the head-quarters are fixed in this great emporium.
10. Hong Kong is already well provided with the establishments required by its vast commerce. There are five docks, provided with all the appliances necessary for the repairs of ships of war and merchant vessels.
11. There is communication by steamer and telegraph with nearly all parts of the world. Telegrams of all important events occurring in Europe, Asia, and America, appear within a few hours in the daily newspapers of Hong Kong.
*
12. The population of the island, which is chiefly centred in the city of Victoria, amounted, according to the census taken in April 1881, to 160,402, of which number 7,990 were whites, 1,722 coloured, and the remainder Chinese.
13. Full provision has been made for the public instruction of all races and classes of the population by means of schools, supported in part directly by the Government, and in part on the "grant-in-aid" system. There is a bishop of the Anglican, and also of the Roman Catholic Church; and clergymen of the principal Christian communions.
**
14. The average range of the thermometer is from 43° to 89° in the city of Victoria; but it is much cooler on the range of hills above, where many of the principal inhabitants possess summer residences. On the whole it may be said that Victoria in Hong Kong has the summer of Alexandria, and the winter of Naples.
15. The Island is separated from the mainland of China by an arm of the sea, varying from four miles to half a mile in width. The opposite peninsula of Kowloong was ceded by China to
* The resident whites were only about 3,000, the remainder consisting of the naval and military forces, and the crews of merchant ships in the harbour.
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