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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL.
Chinese. The rate of interest charged on good mortgage securities is now usually 7 per cent. per annum whereas three years ago it was rarely less than 8 per cent.
The granite quarries, of which there are a large number on the coasts both of the island and in New Kowloon, were wholly or partially closed down for a greater part of the year, owing partly to the fact that the export of stone to China had practically stopped since the Revolution and also to contracts in Hong Kong requiring a large amount of stone having been completed. Reductions of one-third of the annual rents were in many cases granted to the lessees and the leases of only two of the quarries which expired on 31st December were re-let.
Sales of land in the New Territories continue even, consisting chiefly of small building sites for native occupation and patches of undeveloped agricultural land. There is a tendency amongst a few Chinese to buy up land in the neighbourhood of the railway and roads with a view to future development.
The Government have leased 8 acres of waste land at Fanling to the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club, who have laid out an 18-hole course; a large club house has been built and a bungalow has been erected in the neighbourhood of the links by a private individual. Three private families have erected or rented bungalows at Tai Po and further enquiries are being made for building sites there.
III.-LEGISLATION.
Forty-three Ordinances were passed during 1912, of which 18 were amendments to other Ordinances and 11 were connected with the Revision of the Ordinances of Hong Kong.
The most important Ordinances were Chinese Marriage Preservation (No. 42), Foreign Copper Coin (No. 11), Full Court (No. 27) and Limited Partnerships (No. 18).
IV.-EDUCATION.
There are 63 Government and grant schools, the most important of which is Queen's College. Of these, 20 are Upper Grade Schools with a staff competent to give instruction in all subjects of the 7th standard and above. These latter schools have an average attendance of 4,054, and the medium of instruction in all of them, with the exception of four girls' schools, is English. The 43 remaining schools are all lower grade. They comprise one school for British Indians, where English and Urdu are taught, four Government schools and 38 grant vernacular schools. The average attendance at all these lower grade schools is 1,984. The total average attendance at both grades of schools is 6,038.
The revenue derived from school fees was $66,172.50 (of which $32,720 was from Queen's College).