1887-1903
COLONIAL REPORTS - ANNUAL,
No. 107.
HONG KONG.
[For Report for 1892 see Colonial Report (Annual) No. 85.]
Acting GOVERNOR O'BRIEN to the MARQUESS Of Ripon.
MY LORD MARQUESS,
Government House, Hong Kong,
April 24, 1894.
I HAVE the honour to transmit, for your Lordship's information, the Blue Book for 1893, with the following remarks thereon:--
Revenue.
The revenue for the year amounted to $2,078,135.26, a decrease of $158,798.11 as compared with 1892, which may generally be accounted for as follows:-
Assessed Taxes. - Decrease $63,928.72. Of this, $50,000 is explained by the exceptional activity displayed by the Treasury in the collection of arrears in 1892.
Opium Monopoly. - Decrease $67,100. The Farm, which had been let from March 1889 to March 1892, brought in in January and February 1892 $35,800 per mensem, while the new Farm let from the 1st March, 1892, only yields $28,400 per mensem. Again, $50,000 of the receipts in 1892 really represented revenue of 1891, the farmer having been allowed to hold over payment of that sum.
Stamps. Decrease $9,366.64 is owing to the decrease in share transactions, mortgages, &c., and to the fact that postage stamps are now more largely used than previously for certain revenue purposes.
Other Miscellaneous Receipts. - Decrease $23,112.63. In 1892 the sale of the Lazaretto on Stonecutters' Island to the Military Authorities brought in a sum of $20,000 under this head.
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