CO129-013 - Sir John Davis - 1845 [8-12] — Page 101

We

unable to admit the force of

ark cra

the remarks of His bxcellency in Council, by

which it is endeavoured to justify the Opium and other licensed farms__" Beca

"Because the same " system is in existence at Singapore." __ It is difficult, we conceive, to find two places, whose

situation is more

dissimilar ins

I in every respect. Singapore is a place where sent

of

Land is remarkably moderate, it is the s Emporium of an important and valuable- Trade, with a large and comparatively. wealthy population. Hongkong on the other hand is already taxed in ground rents alone higher than

any Colony in the world;

it has no trade at all, and

the

mere

place of Residence of Government and its

Officers, with a few British Morchants, and

а

very scanty

ar

d

6 poor

Chinese population.

is as able to bear

in our humble

When Hongkong

Singapore, it may,

tazation as

judgment,

100

judgment, be still a question, whether the heavy ground rents ought not to exempt the Inhabitants from further payments; but whatever may eventually be considered expedient, we would wish to impress upon the Government our. belief, that oppressive Burthers laid on an

infant Trade, and on a new bolony, situated as Hongkong. now is must inevitably be not only unjust. early settlers, but ultimately fatal to the Settlement itself

to ther

We are bound, as Merchants, to speake

with diffidence on points of law, where we +

find our views at variance with those of the Colonial Law Officers ; but we must still

adhere to our

and reassert

opinion, and,

our

conviction, that Ordinance Nr. 2 is alike.

unconstitutional and illegal.

We quite

concur with His Excellency, in the wisdom of his having refused to levy small: tonnage Duty in Honghong, for as

miest