1887-1903
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL.
(B.) VOLUNTEER FORCES.
31
The field battery numbered 117, of whom 93 were efficients; while the figures for the Machine Gun Company were 58 and 43 respectively.
X.-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The most important event of the year 1898 as regards this Colony was the grant by China of a lease for 99 years of a portion of the mainland and some of the surrounding islands to Great Britain as an extension of the Colony. The Honourable J. H. Stewart Lockhart, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary, who was on leave in England, returned to Hong Kong, and in August visited the territory thus granted, upon the capabilities of which he made an exhaustive report. The occupation of the extended area was not effected during the year under review, and will be more properly dealt with in the report on the Blue Book for the current year.
The year 1898 witnessed a recurrence of the plague, which carried off 1,175 people. The proportion of Europeans attacked was somewhat greater than during the preceding epidemic. So far medical science appears to be equally at fault as to its prevention or its cure. The most active measures were taken by the health officers and the Sanitary Board, but without any apparent effect upon the course of the epidemic, which appeared, increased, declined, and disappeared synchronously with the epidemic in Canton and other towns where no attempt whatever was made to check its ravages. The terror inspired by the epidemic of 1894 among the Chinese has apparently ceased, as there was no exodus during 1898. The coolies, who are almost exclusively the victims, seem to accept the possibilities with stoical equanimity.
Emigration decreased as compared with 1897. At the Emigration Office 8,497 women and children were examined under the "Chinese Emigration Consolidation Ordinance, 1889," and allowed to proceed to their destination. In 1897 the numbers were 8,501. Immigration from China to the Colony is considerable, and among the immigrants, as is inevitable, there are many representatives of the vicious and criminal classes of the mainland, who add considerably to the difficulties with which the Hong Kong police have to contend.
The increase of piracy on the West River is a serious hindrance to the advancement of our trade, and the time is coming when this question must be taken up if our trade is not to be strangled. It is at present one of the most important factors in the future condition of the trade of this Colony with the West River.
211
1887-1903
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL.
(B.) VOLUNTEER FORCES.
31
The field battery numbered 117, of whom 93 were efficients; while the figures for the Machine Gun Company were 58 and 43 respectively.
X.-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The most important event of the year 1898 as regards this Colony was the grant by China of a lease for 99 years of a portion of the mainland and some of the surrounding islands to Great Britain as an extension of the Colony. The Honourable J. H. Stewart Lockhart, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary, who was on leave in England, returned to Hong Kong, and in August visited the territory thus granted, upon the capabilities of which he made an exhaustive report. The occupation of the extended area was not effected during the year under review, and will be more properly dealt with in the report on the Blue Book for the current year.
The year 1898 witnessed a recurrence of the plague, which carried off 1,175 people. The proportion of Europeans attacked was somewhat greater than during the preceding epidemic. So far medical science appears to be equally at fault as to its prevention or its cure. The most active measures were taken by the health officers and the Sanitary Board, but without any apparent effect upon the course of the epidemic, which appeared, increased, declined, and disappeared synchronously with the epidemic in Canton and other towns where no attempt whatever was made to check its ravages. The terror inspired by the epidemic of 1894 among the Chinese has apparently ceased, as there was no exodus during 1898. The coolies, who are almost exclusively the victims, seem to accept the possibilities with stoical equanimity.
Emigration decreased as compared with 1897. At the Emi- gration Office 8,497 women and children were examined under the "Chinese Emigration Consolidation Ordinance, 1889," and allowed to proceed to their destination. In 1897 the numbers were 8,501. "Immigration from China to the Colony is considerable, and among the immigrants, as is inevitable, there are many representatives of the vicious and criminal classes of the mainland, who add considerably to the difficulties with which the Hong Kong police have to contend.
The increase of piracy on the West River is a serious hindrance to the advancement of our trade, and the time is coming when this question must be taken up if our trade is not to be strangled. It is at present one of the most important factors in the future condition of the trade of this Colony with the West River.
211
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