CO129-015 - Others - 1845 — Page 48

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17

LETTER

FROM

THE OFFICIATING COLONIAL SECRETARY

TO THE

SUBSCRIBERS OF A MEMORIAL TO LORD STANLEY.

To

Messrs JARDINE, Matheson, & Co.,

DENT, & Co.

MACVICAR & Co., &c. &c.

Colonial Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 25th August, 1845, GENTLEMEN,—-I am directed by his Excel- lency the Governor to acknowledge the receipt, on the 23d instant, of your letter dated the 13th, enclosing a Memorial to Lord Stanley, and to inform you that the said Memorial shall be duly forwarded to His Lordship, according to your wish.

In the perusal of this paper, several obser- vations have occurred to the Governor and Council, which they consider the present a convenient occasion slightly to notice..

"description of commerce or trade is a subject "of taxation or source of revenue." The answer to this is the well-known fact, that not a single Customs Duty is levied on the import or export of a single article of commerce or consumption-no package is inspected by a government officer in either landing or shipping--no custom-house what- ever is in existence--and although advised by Her Majesty's Government to levy a small Tonnage-duty, to pay the Harbour expenses, His Excellency the Governor has disobeyed his instructions rather than inter- fere with the freedom of the port, by impos- ing even sixpence a ton, when the harbour dues at the five ports and at Macao are about three shillings.

No Import duty whatever has yet been His Excellency's predecessor, Sir Henry levied on even wines and spirits--a produc- Pottinger, in consequence of complaints tive source of revenue in other colonies. It against the high Land Rents, similar to those would be difficult to shew that any direct urged in the present address to Lord Stan- tax whatever (unless Land Rent he so ley, appointed a Board of Officers to value termed) has been paid by the English por- the lots disposed of at the early sales, with tion of the community, While an Income- the provision, that should any individual tax of 3 per cent is paid by the civil, military, deem his lot overvalued by the Board, he and naval officers of the Government, in should be at liberty to hold it at the average common with their fellow-subjects in Eng- rate at which similarly situated lots might land, nothing of the kind is known to the be disposed of at the approaching public richest culouist of Hongkong. It seems un- sale.

This sale took place not long after- | fair and partial, after the resources of the wards. The minimum price affixed to the mother country have been profusely ex- lots was the same as that placed on similar pended in protecting the persons, and ex- lots previously granted, and the result was, tending the markets of its mercantile subjects that while the upset price of the lands in China, that the greater part of the future amounted to £1300, they were sold by ane- civil expenses of this colony should fall on tion for a rental of £2000,—proving that the the British public, as an exception to most former rates bad not been unfair.

other colonies,

The lots disposed of at the latest sales, with the full knowledge of the terms of existing leases, have continued to average as high as at the preceding ones. Lord Stan- ley remarks in a recent despatch, that "it "would be difficult, as Sir Henry Pottinger "has observed, to apply any better test of value than sale in a fair and open market." With all the alleged discouragements and disadvantages, the building of substantial private houses has continued uninterrupted, until the present year deprived Macao of its remaining English merchants. If rents are now reduced to nothing at that place, this must arise chiefly from its desertion. As to Canton, the rents and prices at that principal seat of the Chinese trade are notoriously exorbitant, and it is impossible to con- jecture what they would have been, but for the outlet and the advantages afforded to the merchants of warehousing their goods in a British colony.

The Memorial states, that "in a place "nominally declared to be a free port, every

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The alleged absence of progress in the trade and population of Hongkong can only be judged of by an appeal to facts. The Harbour-master's official retum shews that the European Tonnage of the half-year ending 30th June last was 62,264, while in the previous corresponding half year it was only 49,371. It has been admitted even by those opposed to the Government, that a growing native trade in junks has com- menced in spite of the 13th Article of the Supplementary Treaty. Mr Gutzlaff re- ports, that 120,000 pieces of Cotton goods have been taken away by 13 junks in this year.

It is little more than a twelvemonth since life and property were constantly endangered by the nocturnal attacks of banditti, and 12,000 Rupees of government money carried off by force, the soldiers who guarded it being murdered. A strong and effective Police, and the rigorous execution of the laws, have put an end to this, and the conse- quences are seen in the increased numbers