The rice business of the colony also passed through a severe crisis during the year, due to a great extent to the failure of certain San Francisco buyers to honour their contracts, on the ground that buyers in Cuba, as a result of a considerable amount of overbuying, were repudiating their contracts.
The trade position was further embarrassed by the unrest in the neighbouring provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi. The lawlessness which has unfortunately, so long been a feature of the situation, and which during 1919 was chiefly due to the presence throughout the province of the unpaid and uncontrolled soldiery of both factions, continued throughout the year to the grave detriment of trade in the two provinces.
Between August and October there were several minor outbreaks on the wharves and along the waterfront in Hongkong, caused by the arrival of numbers of Kwangsi soldiers on their way through the colony to or from Swatow. The bitterness engendered by the struggle between the rival parties of the two provinces was reflected in these attacks made on Kwangsi soldiers by the Kwangtung coolie element in Hongkong.
During the early portion of the year serious inconvenience was caused to business firms by the irregular arrivals of English mails. This was due to failure on several occasions to make the steamer connection at Nagapatam. The position was remedied later in the year by the provision of more fast vessels on the London-Bombay service and by an arrangement with the Straits Settlements Postal Administration for Hongkong letter mails to be sent by rail from Penang to Singapore.
The year was marked by a number of strikes among the workmen in various trades in the Colony. The most serious was the Fitters' strike in April, which was, however, amicably settled within 16 days. Other strikes were those of the Blackwood Furniture makers and the Chinese tailors' assistants.
A new valuation of the Colony was made during the year, by which the Rateable Value was increased from $17,408,959 to $18,696,660, an addition of 7.40 per cent.
# I.-FINANCES
The revenue for the year amounted to $14,689,672 being $625,128 less than the estimate and $1,835,303 less than the revenue for the previous year.
Compared with the returns for 1919 there were increases under every head with the exception of Licences and Interest.
The expenditure amounted to a total of $14,489,594 inclusive of a sum of $2,555,878 spent on Public Works Extraordinary.