we have in our harbour for conducting the commercial movement of the Colony; it has substantially increased. The returns I am laying before you are identical in form with the returns prepared in the time of Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY, and probably his predecessors, and amongst these returns there is one which answers the question I have been asking, and that is a return of the occupations of the Chinese adult male inhabitants of the Colony. On analysing that return, I find that the following are the changes that have taken place since the last census with respect to Chinese merchants and other Chinese directly concerned in the trade and commerce of the Colony.
The Chinese Trading hongs, that is, the Nam-pak hongs and other wealthy merchants who now send the manufactures of England into China,-have increased from 215 to 395. Chinese traders have increased from 287 to 2,377; Chinese brokers, from 142 to 455. Taking the Chinese engaged in dealing in money;--the Shroffs have increased from 40 to 208; the Teachers of shroffing have increased from 9 to 14; the Bullion dealers, who do not appear in any former census, are now returned at 34; the Money Changers, 111 in 1876, still remain at 111, but in 1876 there were no Chinese Bankers returned, and now we have in this census 55 Chinese Bankers. The piece-goods dealers have increased from 78 in 1876 to 109, and cotton and yarn dealers from 38 to 58. This is of interest, not merely to Manchester, Bradford or Leeds:(these Chinese merchants of Hongkong are now facilitating an Indian trade with China, healthier, and with a safer future, than the trade in that drug which a few years ago was the only considerable commercial link between British India and China. Since 1877, the quantity of Bombay yarn received in Hongkong has steadily risen from 21,000 bales to 61,000. The increase in the value of this trade from $1,706,913 in 1877 to $5,251,246 in 1880, has been coincident with an increase in our imports of raw cotton from Bengal and Rangoon from 33,000 bales in 1877 to 86,000 in 1880. Our opium trade shows no such tendency to increase. In 1880, we imported 87,747 chests, as against 88,428 in 1877. Mr. F. D. SASSOON tells me that the value of our total trade with India last year was $67,772,937, the value of the opium being $58,248,235. Though the trade in other goods than opium is but one-sixth of the total Indian trade, yet it is so rapidly developing, that I look forward with confidence to the time when it will outstrip, and, perhaps, enable the Indian Government to curtail, the trade in opium. Tea merchants have increased from 26 to 51, rice dealers from 95 to 128, coal dealers from 16 to 20, firearms dealers from 15 to 20, timber dealers from 15 to 107, drapers from 101 to 156, and foreign goods' dealers from 167 to 191. Compradores have increased from 77 to 95, ship compradores from 67 to 113, and ship charterers from 7 to 41. Looking to the increase I have pointed out in the ordinary machinery for the commercial movement in the harbour, to this remarkable increase of the mercantile community, and to the well-known magnitude of the mercantile transactions of our Chinese merchants, it seems clear that this large expenditure, since January 1880, of $1,710,000 by Chinese for commercial property was a necessary expenditure.
There is another question that we may fairly ask. It has often been said, and there is hardly a directory or guide relating to Hongkong in which you do not see it recorded, that Hongkong has no local manufactures whatever. Is that true? Well, on turning to the census returns, I find many local Chinese manufactures in this Colony. Bamboo workers have increased from 93 in 1876 to 121 in 1881; Boat builders, from 48 to 110; Carvers, from 59 to 70; Cigar makers, from 21 to 31; Engineers from 10 to 121, and Gold beaters from 41 to 60. Glass manufacturers appear for the first time; there are now 16 in the Colony, and I believe at this moment the glass manufactory to the west of the town is capable of turning out such glass as some of the European storekeepers here are themselves prepared to sell; and when a service of glass may get injured, they can now send to our local glass manufactory and get tumblers to replace those broken in the set. I find image makers have increased from 10 to 15, lantern makers from 50 to 63, leather box makers from 39 to 53, lemonade and soda-water makers from 28 to 30. Watch manufacturers did not appear in the former census; they now number 13. Oar makers have increased from 30 to 43. Opium dealers have declined from 108 to 103, but that is not coincident with any decline in the revenue the Government of Hongkong derives from the monopoly of prepared opium, which was $132,000 in 1877, but was sold in 1879 for $205,000 a year. Paper box makers have declined from 21 to 10, and rattan workers from 596 to 448. Of rifle makers we have five in the Colony. Sail and rope makers have increased from 100 to 141, and sandal-wood dealers and workers, from 74 to 76. Workers in sapanwood have declined from 96 to 20, and though there is apparently a decline in the number of sauce manufacturers from 49 to 41, there has been an increase in the quantity of sauce manufactured. I may mention, that a short time before the late Mr. KWOK ACHEONG died, I went with him and two or three other Chinese gentlemen interested in the factory at Yau-ma-ti, to examine the factory, which was in a more or less rude state, the buildings not being then completed. I was glad to see what they were doing. In addition to making soy, they made ketchup for the European market, and they had also a manufactory for preserving fruits. Now, the ketchup is sent in hundreds of barrels every year direct from Hongkong to a well-known house in London,-that well-known provision merchant whose good things most of us have, from time to time, enjoyed. He sends out thousands of little bottles of his ketchup to Chinese as well as to European storekeepers here, so that, in short, the ketchup we consume as English ketchup is manufactured by Chinese in Hongkong, sent to England, and this famous provision merchant in England returns it to us for retail. I am bound to add, that the latest advices are that the peculiar article which is produced by the Chinese manufacturer at Yau-ma-ti was regarded at the recent sales in London as the best in the market, and our little local manufactory is very successful.
we have in our harbour for conducting the commercial movement of the Colony; it has substantially increased. The returns I am laying before you are identical in form with the returns prepared in the time of Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY, and probably his predecessors, and amongst these returns there is one which answers the question I have been asking, and that is a return of the occupations of the Chinese adult male inhabitants of the Colony. On analysing that return, I find that the following are the changes that have taken place since the last census with respect to Chinese merchants and other Chinese directly concerned in the trade and commerce of the Colony.
The Chinese Trading hongs, that is, the Nam-pak hongs and other wealthy inerchants who now send the manufactures of England into China,-have increased from 215 to 395. Chinese traders have increased from 287 to 2,377; Chinese brokers, from 142 to 455. Taking the Chinese engaged in dealing in money;--the Shroffs have increased from 40 to 208; the Teachers of shroffing have increased from 9 to 14; the Bullion dealers, who do not appear in any former census, are now returned at 34; the Money Changers, 111 in 1876, still remain at 111, but in 1876 there were no Chinese Bankers returned, and now we have in this census 55 Chinese Bankers. The piece-goods dealers have increased from 78 in 1876 to 109, and cotton and yarn dealers from 38 to 58. This is of interest, not merely to Manchester, Bradford or Leeds:(these Chinese merchants of Hongkong are now facilitating an Indian trade with China, healthier, and with a safer future, than the trade in that drug which a few years ago was the only considerable commercial link between British India and China. Since 1877, the quantity of Bombay yarn received in Hongkong has steadily risen from 21,000 bales to 61,000. The increase in the value of this trade from $1,706,913 in 1877 to $5,251,246 in 1880, has been coincident with an increase in our imports of raw cotton from Bengal and Rangoon from 33,000 bales in 1877 to 86.000 in 1880. Our opium trade shows no such tendency to increase. In 1880, we imported 87,747 chests, as against 88,428 in 1877. Mr. F. D. SASSOON tells me that the value of our total trade with India last year was $67,772,937, the value of the opium being $58,248,235. Though the trade in other goods than opium is but one-sixth of the total Indian trade, yet it is so rapidly developing, that I look forward with confidence to the time when it will outstrip, and, perhaps, enable the Indian Government to curtail, the trade in opium. Tea merchants have increased from 26 to 51, rice dealers from 95 to 128, coal dealers from 16 to 20, firearms dealers from 15 to 20, timber dealers from 15 to 107, drapers from 101 to 156, and foreign goods' dealers from 167 to 191. Compradores have increased from 77 to 95, ship compradores from 67 to 113, and ship charterers from 7 to 41. Looking to the increase I have pointed out in the ordinary machinery for the commercial movement in the harbour, to this remarkable increase of the mercantile community, and to the well-known magnitude of the mercantile transactions of our Chinese merchants, it seems clear that this large expenditure, since January 1880, of $1,710,000 by Chinese for commercial property was a necessary expenditure.
There is another question that we may fairly ask. It has often been said, and there is hardly a directory or guide relating to Hongkong in which you do not see it recorded, that Hongkong has no local manufactures whatever. Is that true? Well, on turning to the census returns, I find many local Chinese manufactures in this Colony. Bamboo workers have increased from 93 in 1876 to 121 in 1881; Boat builders, from 48 to 110; Carvers, from 59 to 70; Cigar makers, from 21 to 31; Engi neers from 10 to 121, and Gold beaters from 41 to 60. Glass manufacturers appear for the first time; there are now 16 in the Colony, and I believe at this moment the glass manufactory to the west of the town is capable of turning out such glass as some of the European storekeepers here are themselves prepared to sell; and when a service of glass may get injured, they can now send to our local glass manufactory and get tumblers to replace those broken in the set. I find image makers have increased from 10 to 15, lantern makers from 50 to 63, leather box makers from 39 to 53, lemonade and soda- water makers from 28 to 30. Watch manufacturers did not appear in the former census; they now number 13. Oar makers have increased from 30 to 43. Opium dealers have declined from 108 to 103, but that is not coincident with any decline in the revenue the Government of Hongkong derives from the monopoly of prepared opium, which was $132,000 in 1877, but was sold in 1879 for $205,000 a year. Paper box makers have declined from 21 to 10, and rattan workers from 596 to 448. Of rifle makers we have five in the Colony. Sail and rope makers have increased from 100 to 141, and sandal-wood dealers and workers, from 74 to 76. Workers in sapanwood have declined from 96 to 20, and though there is apparently a decline in the number of sauce manufacturers from 49 to 41, there has been an increase in the quantity of sauce manufactured. I may mention, that a short time before the late Mr. KWOK ACHEONG died, I went with him and two or three other Chinese gentlemen interested in the factory at Yau-ma-ti, to examine the factory, which was in a more or less rude state, the buildings not being then completed. I was glad to see what they were doing. In addition to making soy, they made ketchup for the European market, and they had also a manufactory for preserving fruits. Now, the ketchup is sent in hundreds of barrels every year direct from Hongkong to a well- known house in London,-that well-known provision merchant whose good things most of us have, from time to time, enjoyed. He sends out thousands of little bottles of his ketchup to Chinese as well as to European storekeepers here, so that, in short, the ketchup we consume as English ketchup is manufactured by Chinese in Hongkong, sent to England, and this famous provision merchant in England returns it to us for retail. I am bound to add, that the latest advices are that the peculiar article which is produced by the Chinese manufacturer at Yau-ma-ti was regarded at the recent sales in London as the best in the market, and our little local manufactory is very successful. 1
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