272
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841–1941
STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
General Observations.
10. Amongst the occurrences in 1860 there are two which deserve to be noted here, although they find no place in the accompanying volume; the first is the assembling and fitting out here of the large naval and military expedition, which was despatched from this for the North early last year, and the second is the acquisition of the Kowloon Peninsula. 11. After the events of last year, the importance of Hong Kong in a political point of view can never again be questioned; and the manner in which it was enabled to respond to the great and unusual demands which were made upon it for money, transports, and supplies, without interfering with the ordinary tradal operations, showed a marvellous elasticity in the commercial resources of the Colony.
12. The establishment of British jurisdiction over Kowloon is a great boon to this Colony. It is a portion of the main land opposite, about three miles deep by one mile in breadth, which projects into the centre of our harbour. From the weakness of the Chinese Government and our inability to interfere directly, the place had become the resort of thieves, resetters, and pirates, who preyed upon the shipping in the harbour, and who were amenable to no practical control. As a mere matter of police, therefore, the accession is of great importance; but it is of still more importance in military, sanitary, and commercial points of view, as it commands the harbour and shipping, possesses good sites for building, open to the South-west monsoon, which Victoria is not, and is capable of supplying every deficiency of Hong Kong as a commercial harbour in the way of docks, deep sea piers, and store houses for bulky cargoes upon the water's edge.
13. Satisfactory, nevertheless, as the accompanying returns are, and rapid as the growth of the Colony has been during the last two or three years, I cannot myself see that it is ever likely to become anything very different from what it is at present, or that there is even now any prospect of the vast expectations which were formed of it in its infancy, being realized. If the trade of the port increases, as I think it must with the growth of the general trade of China which must follow upon the opening of the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pecheli, and the free navigation of the Yang-tze-Kiang, and the facilities requisite for conducting an increased business are forthcoming here, then the Colony will steadily but moderately advance also. If, on the other hand, these changes have the effect of drawing the trade into other channels, or if the necessary facilities for its extension should not be found here, then the Colony will either retrograde or remain stationary. In any case Hong Kong is not, I think, destined to become a great Chinese settlement, with a population equal to half that of Canton, or even a quarter, say 250,000. The island has no natural advantages beyond a good harbour, happily situated at the southern threshold of the Chinese empire, and forming, as it were, the entrance gate of its seaboard. It has neither agriculture nor manufactures. It produces nothing for either export or consumption, and is not capable of growing supplies sufficient to feed its inhabitants for one single day. The population must therefore be fed by sea-borne supplies, and the numbers must, I conceive, be limited to the amount of fixed employment which can at all times be found here. If we could offer the starving myriads of the opposite continent unlimited employment, which would yield the settler even two meals a day of rice and fish, with two-pence a day for tobacco and luxuries, with common shelter and commonest clothing, I believe we might congregate a million souls under our rule within two years; but we have no such field of labour to offer, or fixed employment of any importance beyond the labour connected with our harbour and our public and private works. Unless therefore Hong Kong should become the fixed seat and centre of some vast industry, such as the tea trade, employing great masses of human labour of men, women, and children, (of which I cannot at present see the slightest prospect,) it can never become a great Chinese settlement, and our numbers must always be limited to the amount of employment which the native and foreign traffic of our waters, and the foreign local development of the Colony itself, may afford to mere rude and unskilled labour.
14. Without, however, ever becoming a great settlement or a productive British plantation, Hong Kong is well calculated to subserve most important political and commercial ends; and these, it is satisfactory to know, are being steadily realized.
(Signed)
His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G.
I have, &c.
HERCULES G. R. ROBINSON.
&c.
&c.
&c.
272
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841–1941
STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
General Observations.
10. Amongst the occurrences in 1860 there are two which deserve to be noted here, although they find no place in the accompanying volume; the first is the assembling and fitting out here of the large naval and military expedition, which was despatched from this for the North early last year, and the second is the acquisition of the Kowloon Peninsula. 11. After the events of last year, the importance of Hong Kong in a political point of view can never again be questioned; and the manner in which it was enabled to respond to the great and unusual demands which were made upon it for money, transports, and supplies, without interfering with the ordinary tradal operations, showed a marvellous elasticity in the commercial resources of the Colony.
•
12. The establishment of British jurisdiction over Kowloon is a great boon to this Colony. It is a portion of the main land opposite, about three miles deep by one mile in breadth, which projects into the centre of our harbour. From the weakness of the Chinese Government and our inability to interfere directly, the place had become the resort of thieves, resetters, and pirates, who preyed upon the shipping in the harbour, and who were amenable to no practical control." As a mere matter of police, therefore, the accession is of great importance; but it is of still more importance in military, sanitary, and commercial points of view, as it commands the harbour and shipping, possesses good sites for building, open to the South-west monsoon, which Victoria is not, and is capable of supplying every deficiency of Hong Kong as a commercial harbour in the way of docks, deep sea piers, and store houses for bulky cargoes upon the water's edge.
13. Satisfactory, nevertheless, as the accompanying returns are, and rapid as the growth of the Colony has been during the last two or three years, I cannot myself see that it is ever likely to become anything very different from what it is at present, or that there is even now any prospect of the vast expectations which were formed of it in its infancy, being realized. If the trade of the port increases, as I think it must with the growth of the general trade of China which must follow upon the opening of the Yellow Sca and the Gulf of Pecheli, and the free navigation of the Yang-tze-Kiang, and the facilities requisite for conducting an increased business are forthcoming here, then the Colony will steadily but moderately advance also. If, on the other hand, these changes have the effect of drawing the trade into other channels, or if the necessary facilities for its extension should not be found here, then the Colony will either retro- grade or remain stationary. In any case Hong Kong is not, I think, destined to become a great Chinese settlement, with a population equal_to_half that of Canton, or even a quarter, say 250,000. The island has no natural advantages beyond a good harbour, happily situated at the southern threshold of the Chinese empire, and forming, as it were, the entrance gate of its seaboard. It has neither agriculture nor manufactures. It pro- duces nothing for either export or consumption, and is not capable of growing supplies sufficient to feed its inhabitants for one single day. The population must therefore be fed by sea-borne supplies, and the numbers must, I conceive, be limited to the amount of fixed employment which can at all times be found here. If we could offer the starving myriads of the opposite continent unlimited employment, which would yield the settler even two meals a day of rice and fish, with two-pence a day for tobacco and luxuries, with common shelter and commonest clothing, I believe we might congregate a million souls under our rule within two years; but we have no such field of labour to offer, or fixed employment of any importance beyond the labour connected with our harbour and our public and private works. Unless therefore Hong Kong should become the fixed seat and centre of some vast industry, such as the tea trade, employing great masses of human labour of men, women, and children, (of which I cannot at present see the slightest prospect,) it can never become a great Chinese settlement, and our numbers must always be limited to the amount of employment which the native and foreign traffic of our waters, and the foreign local development of the Colony itself, may afford to mere rude and unskilled labour,
14. Without, however, ever becoming a great settlement or a productive British plantation, Hong Kong is well calculated to subserve most important political and com mmercial ends; and these, it is satisfactory to know, are being steadily realized.
(Signed)
Ilis Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G.
I have, &c.
HERCULES G. R. ROBINSON..
&c.
&c.
Scc.
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