# Introduction
The Colony, including details of all income and expenditure (even including salaries paid to various office holders), and with this Blue Book was sent the Governor's report summarising the events of the year. Whether the report was written by the Governor himself or by the Chief Secretary with merely a covering letter by the Governor depended on the character of the two men. The writing of this annual report on the Blue Book was obviously not a popular task, as illustrated in two despatches of June 1847, strangely enough by Sir Henry Pottinger (the first Governor of Hong Kong) and his Colonial Secretary but from the Cape of Good Hope, Pottinger's next posting after Hong Kong: in his despatch No. 72 of 7th June 1847 forwarding the Blue Book of the Cape of Good Hope, Pottinger wrote:
'In obedience to the instructions contained in paragraph 1, section 4, chapter 7, page 59 of the Compendium of Rules and Regulations for HM's Colonial Service, I transmit the Blue Book with the Colonial Secretary's Report thereon'.
However, the report of John Montagu, the Colonial Secretary, began with these words:
'Your Excellency is no doubt aware that it forms one of the duties of the Governor of the Colony to draw up annually a General report on the state and prospects of the several territories under his administration, which is transmitted with the Blue Book of the year. In the present instance, this duty has devolved upon me.'
Sir Henry Pottinger had left Hong Kong before the first Hong Kong Blue Book and Report had been written - they were sent in May 1845, for the year 1844; perhaps because it was the first Blue Book to be compiled for Hong Kong, there does not seem to have been an unwillingness of either Governor or Colonial Secretary to write the accompanying report and both men wrote separate lengthy reports on it.
The obligation to write these reports continued unchanged right up to 1939 and the beginning of the Second World War, when it was decided that colonies need no longer submit them. The only exception was Palestine and other mandated territories where it was thought that the British Government had an obligation to the League of Nations to write such administration reports, even though they could not be presented but even there, reports were not actually written after 1941.
The nomenclature of the Hong Kong report, however, did change from time to time. Until 1889 it was called ‘Annual Report on the Blue Book'. From 1890 to 1930 it was called simply ‘Annual Report on Hong Kong', but there was no change in content between the 1889 report with the old title and the 1890 report with the new title, although as time went on changes in style and arrangement did gradually develop. From 1931 to 1939 the title was 'Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Hong Kong'.
Some of the reports were never published and these are reproduced in these volumes for the first time ever. The rest were published, although the
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Introduction
the colony, including details of all income and expenditure (even including salaries paid to various office holders), and with this Blue Book was sent the Governor's report summarising the events of the year. Whether the report was written by the Governor himself or by the Chief Secretary with merely a covering letter by the Governor depended on the character of the two men. The writing of this annual report on the Blue Book was obviously not a popular task, as illustrated in two despatches of June 1847 strangely enough by Sir Henry Pottinger (the first Governor of Hong Kong) and his colonial secretary but from the Cape of Good Hope, Pottinger's next posting after Hong Kong: in his despatch no. 72 of 7th June 1847 forwarding the Blue Book of the Cape of Good Hope, Pottinger
wrote:
W
'In obedience to the instructions contained in paragraph 1, section 4, chapter 7, page 59 of the Compendium of Rules and Regulations for HM's Colonial Service, I transmit the Blue Book with the Colonial Secretary's Report thereon'.
However, the report of John Montagu, the colonial Secretary, began with these words:
'Your Excellency is no doubt aware that it forms one of the duties of the Governor of the Colony to draw up annually a General report on the state and prospects of the several territories under his administration, which is transmitted with the Blue Book of the year. In the present instance, this duty has devolved upon me.'
Sir Henry Pottinger had left Hong Kong before the first Hong Kong Blue Book and Report had been written - they were sent in May 1845, for the year 1844; perhaps because it was the first Blue Book to be compiled for Hong Kong, there does not seem to have been an unwillingness of either Governor or Colonial Secretary to write the accompanying report and both men wrote separate lengthy reports on it.
The obligation to write these reports continued unchanged right up to 1939 and the beginning of the Second World War, when it was decided that colonies need no longer submit them. The only exception was Palestine and other mandated territories where it was thought that the British Government had an obligation to the League of Nations to write such administration reports, even though they could not be presented but even there, reports were not actually written after 1941.
The nomenclature of the Hong Kong report, however, did change from time to time. Until 1889 it was called ‘Annual Report on the Blue Book'. From 1890 to 1930 it was called simply ‘Annual Report on Hong Kong', but there was no change in content between the 1889 report with the old title and the 1890 report with the new title, although as time went on changes in style and arrangement did gradually develop. From 1931 to 1939 the title was 'Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Hong Kong'.
Some of the reports were never published and these are reproduced in these volumes for the first time ever. The rest were published, although the
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