CO129-027 - Public Offices - 1848 — Page 458

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Appendix.

Report on the

Island of Hong Kong.

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carriage, fees, &c., will be reduced, and the cost price thus lessened by one-third to the British consumer; on the other hand the Chinese will be able to purchase at a cheaper rate British manufactures, when they are brought by our vessels to their doors. These and other considerations render it a matter of national importance that our trade with China be diffused over several ports, instead of being confined to Canton, and indicate that it is not desirable that Hong Kong be maintained, even if the assertion be true, as a protec- tion to the trade of Canton.

There are now five ports open on the coast of China to all European, East Indian, and American vessels. There can be no reason why foreign vessels should discharge cargo at Hong Kong, merely to change cargoes from one vessel to another; and as the Chinese government now, I believe, allows a vessel to sell part of her cargo at one port, and then proceed to another, and will probably ere long form bonded warehouses at each

port, there will be still less probability of any trade being established here. It is indeed a delusion or a deception to talk of Hong Kong becoming a commercial emporium, and to liken it to Singapore. The circumstances and position of Hong Kong and Singapore present no resemblance whatever. Hong Kong is a barren rock, producing nothing, not leading to any place, surrounded by no trading or populous communities with various commodities for barter, and disadvantageously situated at the most impoverished part of a coast line of 2,000 miles, and which for half the year is only readily accessible in one direction.

Singapore is most advantageously placed at the southern point of the rich Malayan Peninsula, and at the entrance of the Straits of Malacca, which may be considered the high road between Eastern and Western Asia. It is surrounded by, or lies contiguous to, the most fertile, wealthy, and populous islands and countries in the world. Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Macassar, Penang, Siam, Cochin-China, Tonquin, Birmah, &c. The harbour of Singapore is capacious, perfectly sheltered, easy of access from every point of the compass, and never experiencing a tempest. The climate is very salubrious. The island is of great beauty and fertility, with an undulating surface, an area of 120,000 acres, all capable of tillage, and of which 20,000 acres are now under the luxuriant and profitable cultivation of sugar cane, nutmegs, pepper, rice, beetle nut, gambier, cocoa nuts, &c. The sugar made by Mr. Ballastier with a steam engine, or by Mr. Montgomerie by water and cattle mills, is equal in quality to the produce of the West Indies; the nutmeg trees are already yielding abundantly; the black pepper produced during the past year amounted to 38,000 piculs (a picul 133 lbs.), the gambier to 85,000 piculs, and there are 100,000 cocoa-nut trees in full bearing. Live stock, bread, water, and delicious fruit and vege- tables of every kind, and at moderate prices, are at all times ready for the shipping, who enjoy the advantage of a perfectly free port; 86 miles of excellent roads have been completed, and extensive communications are in progress; land is being sold in fee simple at a minimum and maximum price of five to ten rupees, or 10 s. to 20s. per acre; 50,000 industrious and skilful inhabitants are spreading cultivation in every direction; four com- panies of Sepoys constitute the sole military force of the island, which has not even a fort for its defence; the revenue in 1842 amounted to rupees 509,087, and the disburse- ments (including rupees 165,955 for troops, and rupees 49,789 for Bengal and Madias convicts) to rupees 494,029, leaving a surplus of income to the extent of rupees 15,083, and under the able management of the present Governor, Colonel Butterworth, it is one of the most lucrative possessions of the British Crown.

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The remarkably eligible position of Singapore for a commercial emporium led to its establishment as a British colony by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819, when there were but a few Malay fishermen on the island, who disputed with the tiger for their occupancy. In 1812 the trade of the colony amounted to 1,000,000 7. sterling, in 1824 to 3,000,000 7. sterling, and last year, and indeed for several years, the commerce of the island has averaged 5,600,000 7. sterling per annum.

This trade is carried on with many countries: with Great Britain, to the extent of $3,000,000; with Calcutta, $2,800,000; with Java, 1,500,000; with foreign Europe, North and South America, Madras, Bombay, Arabia, Ceylon, Penang, Malacca, Birmah, Siam, Cochin-China, Manilla, Hainan, Formosa, and the whole coast of China; with Sumatra, Borneo, Rhio, the Moluccas, Mauritius, Australasia, &c. Traders from all these places meet by common consent at a central mart close to the Equator, and exchange the productions of Asia for those of Europe and America. It is erroneously supposed that Singapore has been created by its trade with China; such is not the fact. The total import tonnage of Singapore in 1838-39, in square-rigged vessels, was 178,796 tons, of which that from China was 32,860. The native tonnage for the same year was 48,000, of which the Chinese vessels constituted 8,000 tons.

The Straits produce," which the Chinese require, are brought to Singapore by Malay and other coasting craft who would not proceed to the northward; and the proprietors of the Chinese junks, with whom time is no object, and who go down the coast to the Eastern Archipelago with one monsoon and return with the other, prefer the speculation with their varied cargoes, and the visiting of their countrymen at the different islands.

But sufficient has been stated to show that there is no analogy whatever between Hong Kong and Singapore, and that the geographical, territorial, and commercial advantages which have contributed to the prosperity of Singapore, are totally and entirely wanting, and can never be created at Hong Kong.

Financial

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Appendix.

Financial Point of View.-There is no apparent prospect of Hong Kong ever yielding any revenue adequate to more that a very small civil government. The limited size and rocky nature of the island, the absence of agriculture, manufactures, or commerce, and the Report on the fluctuating and predatory character of the population, forbid the hope of an income being Island of Hong raised to sustain a regular Government establishment, on the scale now adopted, and which Kong. indeed is far beyond the present or prospective wants of the island community. Under the most favourable circumstances there may possibly, some years hence, be obtained from the rent of building land from 5,000 1. to 7,000 1. per annum; the markets, licences, fines, and fees of every description, may realize hereafter about 1,000l. per annum. tonnage duty would not yield more than 500l. to 1,000 7. per annum, if it did not drive The levy of a away the few ships that now enter the harbour; it is not probable that vessels would pay 6 d. per ton merely to call for orders, when then they can lie in Macao roads and daily communicate with Hong Kong. A registration or licence for each male Chinese resident on the island might, if there were a more respectable class of inhabitants in the colony, produce 600 1. to 1,000 l. a year. Neither auction duties, stamps, or any of the other ordi- nary sources of taxation, would under present circumstances yield any revenue worth consideration.

The idea that the Chinese government will sanction the introduction of opium into China at a moderate fixed duty, and that a large revenue may then be raised by ware- housing the drug at Hong Kong, must, 1 think, be abandoned as illusory. The legal ad- mission of opium into China by the Emperor, according to the best information I can obtain, is not at all probable; but even were the traffic in opium legalized, the traders have declared they would not pay any duty in Hong Kong. They can keep their large receiving ships the whole year round in Hong Kong or in any other harbours, or tranship the opium from the vessels which convey the drug from Bengal and Bombay to this place, on board the smaller vessels, which proceed along the coast to sell, or deposit it at Whampoa, Namoa, Amoy, Chimmo, Chin-Chu, Chusan, or Woosung, in the receiving ships which lie in these bays or stations the whole year round. I will not discuss the question of raising a revenue in Hong Kong from the introduction of opium for smoking in the island, either by farming out the drug or otherwise. Independent of the morality or immorality of the question of Government deriving an income from a vicious indulgence, so long as the Chinese government prohibit the introduction and make the use of opium a capital offence, it would not, to say the least, be seemly of us to encourage the use of this destructive and poisonous stimulant in Hong Kong.

The total revenue to be expected from this colony cannot in my opinion exceed 10,000 l. per annum, and to obtain this amount several years must elapse under the most favourable circumstances. The per-contra side shows an expenditure at this moment for mere civil establishment salaries and wages at the rate of 50,000 l. per annum, irrespective of the cost of any public works, roads, and buildings, which is estimated at 50,000 7, per annum for several years, independent also of the consular charges of 30,000 . per annum, and of the army and navy; the whole showing a yearly drain on the British Exchequer of half a million pounds sterling. (See Documentary Appendix.) And here it may be necessary to remove an erroneous assertion that this heavy yearly charge is only a portion of the revenue which England derives from the China trade.

The revenue which is obtained from tea is paid by the people of England, who buy and consume the tea. It might as well be said that the West Indies furnished the revenue derived by the British Exchequer from the coffee and sugar consumed in the United King- dom. The incidence of taxation is on the last purchaser of the taxed article; the tea merchant in London adds to the invoice cost of the tea bought at Canton, the freight to England, the insurance, interest of money, warehousing, customs duty levied in England, and the fair profits of trade on every chest of tea he may sell to the grocer, who then regu- lates the price at which he can afford to sell a pound of tea to his customer, who finally pays the whole charges, taxes, and profits to the several parties before he drinks his tea, The revenue derived from the China trade is paid by the people of England; the merchant who carries on the trade does not pay one shilling of it.

It will be for Her Majesty's Ministers to decide whether, on a review of the whole case, there be any justification for spending half a million sterling annually on this coast. Com- modore Chads, C. B., who has had extensive experience for many years in China, is of opinion that England would be wise in not establishing any colony in China.

As a general principle, colonies that will not pay at least the expense of their civil, govern- ment are not worth maintaining. There does not appear any reason why Hong Kong should be an exception to this rule. There is not, as has been fancifully supposed, any analogy whatever between Hong Kong and Gibraltar, Hong Kong commands nothing; a glance at a chart will show that the navigation of the China seas is perfectly indepen- dent of Hong Kong; nay, even the entrance of the Canton river is not controlled by Hong Kong; it is not possible by any outlay of money to make the island a fortress, and it is commanded by the opposite shore of the main land. But supposing several millions sterling were spent in fortifying Hong Kong, and half a million were annually expended for its garrison, the cui bono would constantly recur. From a Chinese enemy the island has nothing to apprehend even at present; no European or American state would think

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