CO129-270 - Public Offices & Others - 1895 — Page 569

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very

about Forty millions of pounds sterling per annum,

and a revenue of some Two millions of dollars, wholly derived from internal taxation, Hongkong is a free port, through which passes upwards of Fourteen millions of tons of ship- ping per annum, aud it ranks

amongst the first in the list of the great seaports in Her Majesty's dominions. It is the centre of enormous British interests, and is an extensive emporium of British trade in the China seas, and, while it rentains a free port, it is destined to expand and develop, and to continue to be the centre of vast traffic and of constant communication between Europe, the Australian Colonies, the United States, and Canada on the one hand, and China, Japan, the Philippine Islands, British North Borneo, Java, Indo-China, Siam, the Straits, and India on the other,

3. Hongkong has attained to its almost unequalled commercial position, through the enterprise, skill, and energy of British Merchants, Traders, and Shipowners ; through the labours of Her Majesty's subjects who have spent their lives and employed their capital on its shores; through the expenditure of many millions of dollars in Roads, Streets, and Bridges; in buildings, public and private; in extensive Reclamations; in Docks, Piers, and Wharves; and last, but not least, in Manufactures of great and increasing value. The prosperity of the Colony can best be maintained by the unremitting exertions and self- sacrifice of your Petitioners and the valuable co-operation and support of the Chinese, and only by the continuance of Hongkong as a free port.

4. Notwithstanding that the whole interests of your Petitioners are thus inextricably and permanently bound up in the good Administration of the Colony, in the efficiency of its Executive, and the soundness of its Finance, your Petitioners are allowed to take only a limited part in the Government of the Colony, and are not permitted to have any really effective voice in the management of its affairs, external or internal. Being purely a Crown Colony, it is governed by a Governor appointed by Her Most Gracious Majesty the QUEEN, and by an Executive and a Legislative Commeil. The former is composed wholly of Officers of the Crown, nominated and appointed by the Crown; the latter consists of seven Official Members, selected and appointed by the QUEES, and five Unofficial Members, two of whom are nominated by certain public bodies in the Colony, while the other three are selected by the Governor, and all are appointed by Her Majesty.

5. The Executive Comcil sits and deliberates in -e ret. The Legislative Conncil sits with open doors, and its pro- cedure appears to admit of full and unfettered discussion, but there is virtually no true freedom of debate. Questions are considered, and settled, and the policy to be adopted by the Government in connection therewith is decided in the Executive Council. They are then brought before the Legislative Council, where the Government-the Official Members being in a majority-()

-ean secure the passing of any measure, in face of any opposition on the part of the Unofficial Members, who are thus limited to objecting and

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