CO129-129 - Sir MacDonnell - 1868 [1-3] — Page 84

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sent home. Mr. Cardwell, however, declined to sele to the prayer of this memorial, and fron the 1st January, 1865. the contribution was estul. During the current year however, the payments have fallen into arreurs, as the colony has been reduced to a condition of insolvency. On the 1st of January, 1868. the surplus of assets over liabilities was $175,000 or £99,000, but since that date the expenses of establishing the Mint have absorbed over $300,000 for which invest- ment the colony may be said to have received no return whatever, as the undertaking bas proved such a complete failure that its gross earnings have amounted to little more than $10.000. The annual accounts of the colony meanwhile have shown a deficit in every year since 1863, as will be seen by the followingügures taken from official records :---

Reo, 1863 £120,028 186-1 132.884

1805 175,717

Def.

£121,888

£1,860

153,022

28,138

195,876

19,659-

195,994

35.600

year with its expected surplus. His Grace in- posed the Contribution in the face of the report by the committee of Your Honourable House. as your petitioners have shown. The injustice of levying this tax was thrast out of sight, be- ease.it was suppose I that Hongkong could so easily pay the amount demanded. So far was this supposition erroneous that, in attempting to do so, the colony has been reduced to the verge of bankruptcy:

Wherefore your petitionerstumbly pray that Your Honourable House will be pleased to take such measures as may procure relief for the Colony of Hong- kong from the burden of paying a Mili- tary Contribution to the Imperial G

vernment.

.*

186,5 180.224 During the present year all old accumulations having been absorbed, it was found impossible to contiane the regular payments of the contribu tion, and they fell into arrears, bat your petitio ners understand that the Secretary of State for the colonies sent out to the Government of Hongkong imperative o dera that these arrears should be paid, and that if necessary the re. quired sums should be raised by new systeurs of taxation. In consequence of these orders the present Governor, Sir R. MacDonnell, was driven to avail himself of an ordinance providing for the establishe.ent of Stamp Datica, passed in 1866, against the vebemeut remonstrances of nearly the whole coinmanity. Parily by means of this new tax, which frightens the Chinese and endangers the commercial existence of the colony, and partly by means of same which hare acerned from the issue of licenses to Chi- nese gambling houses, it is possible that the arrears of the contribution and the amount due for the current year may be extracted from the colony. Meanwhile, however, the Praya or quay which skirts the harbour side for more than two iniles, which may perhaps be consi- dered the main thoroughfare of the town, and on which most of the principal ware. houses stand, remains in the delapidated state to which it was reduced by the autuma typhoons. The government has no funds with which to undertake its effective repair, and has made an effort, the issue of which i still uncer tain, to fasten the legal responsibility for the repair of the Praya upa the Marine lot-holders To the future your Petition rs look with dis- may:

en-

THAT brily recapitulating the arguments brought forward by Sir H. Robinson, and in this hamble petition. your petitioners represent the Military Contribution to have been unfairly im- posed upon Hongkong, because the garrison was not sent here for the sake of the Colony: On the contrary, the island was obtained from China, and uade the price of the peace of Nan- kin, because the British Government wished to establish a garrison upon it: To reduce the expenses of the place, merchants were couraged to come here, buy land, and pay re- gular ground rent, in return for which they were offered the incidental advantages of resi- dence in a British Colony: This succeedel so well that the land tax and rates which they paid cleared the expenses of the Civil Govern- inent in 1855, and have continued to do su ever since. But deluded by the appearance of a full treasury, containing the accumulated premia paid for land lots, which was in fact the capital of the colony, and should never have been in- cluded in a revenne account at all, the Duke of Newcastle came to the conclusion that the re-

venne would yield a progressive surplus. He therefore decided that the colony should first of all pay for the establishment of a Mint with the money it had in hand, and afterwards puy a regular Military Contribution of £20,000 à