CO129-270 - Public Offices & Others - 1895 — Page 568

To the

Honourable The Commons of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Freland in Parliament assembled.

THE HUMBLE PETITION of the Under- signed Merchants, Bankers, Professional Men, Traders, Artisans, and other Rate- payers, inhabitants of the Crown Colony of Hongkong.

RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH:-

1. The Colony of Hongkong, situate in the China seas,

at the south-eastern extremity of the great Empire of China,

is one of the smallest, but by no means the least valuable

or important, of Her Majesty's possessions outside of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

2. It is a little over 50 years since the Colony was founded on a barren rock, the abode of a few fishermen and pirates. To-day it is a City and Settlement with upwards of a quarter of a million inhabitants; a trade estimated at

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