248
110
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT:
two periods the difference in favour of the second is 26,5617, or more than 70 per cent.
7. With reference to population the average increase during the last five years is 36,281, or more than 100 per cent. But, as regards the returns of 1857 and 1858, I am persuaded there must be some error, as the continued building of Chinese houses, crowded to excess and occupied at greatly raised rents, affords substantial evidence of a great augmentation of the population during last year, and that augmentation I feel justified in believing is not less than 10,000 souls. I calculate the present population of the colony at 85,000. Its fluctuating, and ambulatory character may excuse and account for inaccuracies in the census.
8. Nor are the shipping returns less satisfactory. They show in the five years an average yearly increase of 487 vessels representing 251,350 tons, being 68 per cent. The increase of 1858, as compared with 1853, is 269,423 tons, representing 60 per cent. The extension of our relations with all the countries of the furthest East, the circumstance that Hong Kong is the place of arrival and departure of mail communications, and the headquarters of all the great commercial establishments in China are likely to preserve and perpetuate the rank it has now obtained of being one of the most extensively visited harbours to the east of the Cape of Good Hope. There are few ports whose tonnage returns equal or even approach those of Hong Kong.
9. I would add here that during the last five years the general value of lands and houses has enormously increased, and that in the last year no important sales of Crown lands have taken place, so that this source of revenue has not come to our aid. There is difficulty in finding locations either for Europeans or Chinese; I expect that the development of relations with the ports in China to the north, with Japan and other circumjacent regions, will lead to an extension of the population towards the east, while to the west the growth of a superior character of Chinese houses is one of the most marked and pleasing signs of improvement. There can be no doubt of the present opulence of many of the Chinese settlers who came penniless to the colony, and who from labourers and fishermen have become shopkeepers; from shopkeepers, merchants and shipowners. Their relations with foreign countries are everywhere spreading, and they carry on their transactions with many of the subordinate ports which are little known to or visited by foreign merchants. I may mention, as illustrative of Chinese enterprise, that in a place only lately opened to foreign trade (Zamboanga, in the Island of Mindanao), the importation in 1858 by the Chinese of manufactures, principally British, amounted in value to £400,000 sterling.
10. As regards the prospective resources of the colony, a valuable piece of ground in the most frequented part of the city, will be soon at the disposal of Government, and will, no doubt, produce a considerable sum of money. The purchase of the large house (as advised in my Despatch, No. 16, of 25th January last) for the new Civil Hospital enables us to remove the mound called Pedder's Hill, on the top of which the present incommodious Civil Hospital stands; the materials of the mound will be conveniently near, to assist in reclamation from the sea and the formation of the Praya, and the removal of these materials will leave a large level spot as public property. If any portion of it, or the building erected on it, should be appropriated to public purposes, the Court House and Post Office might be removed thither without any public inconvenience, and for these edifices a great price would be given in consequence of their adjacency to the sea frontage.
11. I cannot doubt that both to the east and the west of the city there will ere long be an augmented demand for land. Population is rapidly growing in the neighbourhood of Spring Gardens, and the removal of Hospital Hill, which is close to that locality, would provide valuable ground and furnish excellent materials for extending and utilizing the sea frontage. The western extremity of the city is filling even more rapidly with Chinese settlers; and I quite concur with the Colonial Secretary in opinion, that the deprecatory observations on the futurity of the colony, which have obtained circulation in England, are the results of a hasty and uninformed judgment, to which the statistics of Hong Kong furnish an emphatic, and most convincing reply.
12. The improvement of the roads leading to Aberdeen and Stanley, and the erection of the Aberdeen Docks, now nearly completed, will bring to the southern portions of the island a population whose presence must tend greatly to increase the value of the Crown property.
13. The possession of the small peninsula opposite the island is become of more and more importance. To say nothing of questions of military and naval defence, it would be of great commercial and sanitary value to us (while to the Chinese it is not only of no
244
248
110
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT:
two periods the difference in favour of the second is 26,5617, or more than 70 per cent.
7. With reference to population the average increase during the last five years is 36,281, or more than 100 per cent. But, as regards the returns of 1857 and 1858, I am persuaded there must be some error, as the continued building of Chinese houses, crowded to excess and occupied at greatly raised rents, affords substantial evidence of a great augmentation of the population during last year, and that augmentation I feel: justified in believing is not less than 10,000 souls., I calculate the present population: of the colony at 85,000. Its fluctuating, and ambulatory character may excuse and. account for inaccuracies in the census.
8. Nor are the shipping returns less satisfactory. They show in the five years an average yearly" increase of 487 vessels representing 251,350 tons, being 68 per cent. The increase of 1853, as compared with 1858, is 269,423 tons, representing 60 per cent. The extension; of our relations with all the countries of the furthest East, the circum-· stance that Hong Kong is the place of arrival and departure of mail communications, and the head quarters of all the great commercial establishments: in China are likely to preserve and perpetuate the rank it has now obtained of being one of the most exten. sively visited harbours to the east of the Cape of Good Hope. There are few ports whose tonnage returns equal or even approach those of Hong Kong.:
t
:
*
*
•
9. I would add here that during the last five years the general value of lands and houses has enormously increased, and that in the last year no important sales of Crown lauds have taken place, so that this source of revenue has not come to our aid. There is difficulty in finding locations either for Europeans or Chinese: I expect that the development of relations with the ports in China to the north, with Japan and other circumjacent regions, will lead to an extension of the population towards the cast, while to the west the growth of a superior character of Chinese houses is one of the most marked and pleasing signs of improvement. There can be no doubt of the present opulence of many of the Chinese: settlers who came penniless to the colony, and who from labourers and fishermen have become shopkeepers; from shopkeepers, merchants and shipowners. Their relations with foreign countries are everywhere spreading, and they carry on their transactions with many of the subordinate ports which are little known to or visited by foreign merchants. I may mention, as illustrative of Chinese enterprise, that in a place only lately opened to foreign trade (Zamboanga, in the Island of Mindanao), the importation in 1858 by the Chinese of inanufactures, principally British, amounted in value to 400,000% sterling.
10. As regards the prospective resources of the colony, a valuable piece of ground in the most frequented part of the city, will be soon at the disposal of Government, and will, no doubt, produce a considerable sum of money. The purchase of the large house (as advised in my Despatch, No. 16, of 25th January last) for the new Civil Hospital enable us to remove the mount called Pedder's Hill, on the top of which the present incommodious Civil Hospital stands; the materials of the mount will be conveniently near, to assist in recoveries from the sea and the formation of the Praya, and the removal of these materials will leave a large level spot as public property. If any portion of it, or the building erected. on it, should be appropriated to public purposes, the Court House! and Post Office might be removed thither without any public inconvenience, and for these edifices a great price would be given in consequence of their adjacency to the sea frontage.
11. I cannot doubt that both to the east and the west of the city there will ere, long be an augmented demand for land. Population is rapidly growing in the neighbourhood of Spring Gardens, and the removal of Hospital Hill, which is close to that locality, would provide valuable ground and furnish excellent materials for extending and utilizing the sca frontage. The western extremity of the city is filling even more rapidly with Chinese settlers; and I quite concur with the Colonial Secretary in opinion, that the deprecatory observations on the futurity of the colony, which have obtained circulation in England, are the results of a hasty and uninformed judgment, to which the statistics of Hong Kong furnish an emphatic, and most convincing reply.
•ranilet
*
12. The improvement of the roads leading to Aberdeen and Stanley, and the erection of the Aberdeen Docks, now nearly completed, will bring to the southern portions of the island a population whose presence must tend greatly to increase. the value of the Crown property. NEMA 14 Torting 2
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JA UZ OD O 244
13. The possession of the small peninsula opposite the island is become of more, and more importance. To say nothing of questions of inilitary and naval defence, it would be of great commercial and sanatory value to us (while to the Chinese it is not only of no
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