HKG-CAR1844-1886 — Page 101

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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941

REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT

HONG KONG. bank be chartered, it is likely to prove of great benefit to the general trade with China.

Felice.

I have received from the Deputy Commissary-General a very favourable account of the circulation of the British coin sent out by the Treasury. He tells me it has proved extremely useful for small payments, and that even the Chinese have brought dollars to him to be exchanged for sterling. He is going to apply for more, to the amount of 10,000£.

To judge by the augmented number of respectable Chinese shops, the native trade and industry of this place are on the increase. For many of the products of Chinese manufacture it is no longer necessary to send to Canton, as they can be procured equally well here.

A check has been given to piracy in this neighbourhood by the capture, and conviction before the Admiralty Court, of some pirates, and by the delivery (on demand, according to treaty) of others to the Chinese government. One pirate was condemned and executed here in January last, and three more sentenced to transportation for life.

The judicial and police departments continue to be the heaviest civil charges of the colony. It is to be hoped that a smaller English police force may by degrees be required, and I would recommend that any future superintendent or inspectors of police be selected from persons on the spot, acquainted as these are with the Chinese population, rather than that members of the metropolitan force should be sent out from England to a community whose habits and language are entirely strange to them, and in respect to whom they are therefore placed at a comparative disadvantage.

1

I have had the satisfaction to state that the completion of the colonial gaols not only relieves the government from the payment of a heavy rent, but is also likely to be attended with diminished expense in the custody and guarding of prisoners. For the sake of greater security, and with a view to the general welfare of the inmates, I have made it incumbent on one of the magistrates to visit the prisons weekly, and send me a written report on their condition.

The Right Hon. the Earl Grey,

&c

&c.,

&c.

I have, &c., (Signed)

J. F. DAVIS.

Encl. 1 in No. 43.

Enclosure 1 in No. 43.

EXTRACT from Mr. Consul MacGREGOR's Letter, No. 118, dated Canton, 7th December, 1846, to his Excellency Sir John Francis Davis, Baronet, &c. &c.

WITH regard to Canton I would remark, that the greatest proportion of the goods intended for this market are warehoused at Hong Kong, and only sent over when they have been actually sold here, or offer a fair prospect of a prompt sale. This affords our merchants the facility of deferring the payment of duty until the period of importation, although till then the goods are subject to the charge of warehouse rent.

(True extract.)

W. CAINE, Colonial Secretary.