550
12
Revenue of the Postal Service. The net profit of the Postal Department after deducting $316,756.56 as Expenditure, amounted to $91,702.36 being an increase of $11,012.56 more than that realized in 1903.
Books containing 1, 2 and 4-cent stamps to the value of $1 were available from the beginning of the year and were purchased to the number of 3,040. A direct exchange of money orders with the Transvaal Post Office was arranged. British Postal Orders are now cashed in Hongkong and the British Postal Agencies in China.
The Parcel Post Convention concluded with the United States of America came into force at the beginning of the
year.
All branches continue to show an increase over the return for the previous year.
XI-MILITARY FORCES AND EXPENDITURE.
(a.) REGULAR FORCES.
The following return shows the number and composition of the Forces employed in the Colony during 1904--
General Staff..
CORPS.
EUROPEANS.
Officers,
Warrant
Officers.
N.C.0.'s
¦ & Men.
INDIANS. CHINESE.
Native
Officers.
W. O.,
N.C.0's
& Men.
N. (LO.'s!
& Men.
TOTALS.
5
Garrison Staff.
3
3
Royal Garrison Artillery,
17
625
642
Hongkong-Singapore Bi. R. G. A.,
10
9
389
415
Royal Engineers,
13
196
209
Chinese S. M. M. Co., R. E.,
64
1st Sherwood Foresters,..
446
457
Army Service Corps, ...
4
20
24
Royal Army Medical Corps,
11
51
A. O. Department and Corps,
7
31
38
A. P. Department and Corps,
8
11
110th Mahrutta L. I.,
693
720
93rd Burna Infantry,
712
114th Mahrattus,
711
2nd Royal West Kent Regiment,
48
Totals,
17
105
1,426
49 2.466
69
4.115
(b) COLONIAL CONTRIBUTION,
The Colony contributed $1,270,741.03 (being the statutory contribution of 20 per cent, of revenue) towards the cost of the maintenance of the Regular Forces in the Colony and Barrack Services.
(c.) VOLUNTEER CORPS.
The total establishment of the Corps is 426 of all ranks. The strength on the 31st December, 1904, was 272, made up as follows:---Staff, 8; two Garrison Artillery Companies, 202; one Engineer Company, 32; Band 3; Troop 27.
A small mounted Corps was formed in the latter part of the year under the designation of the Hongkong Volunteers Troop, for purposes of scouting and to act as orderlies in time of war.
An association called the Hongkong Volunteer Reserve Association was also formed. Members who must be over 35 years of age are required to make themselves proficient iu rifle shooting and undertake to enrol themselves under the Volunteer Ordinance in the event of hostilities. The Association numbered ninety- six members at the close of the
year.
13
The expenditure on the Volunteers, which is entirely borne by the Colony, was $44,032.13.
XII.----GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The outbreak of war between Russia and Japan on the 8th February was not without effect on the shipping trade of Hongkong. The percentage of British to total tonnage entering and clearing which had fallen continuously from 75 to 59 in the previous 10 years, rose to 70 in 1904 owing to causes already given in this report. The war brought in its train various questions, involving recourse to the law courts of the Colony, relating to its effect on charter parties and to the refusal of duty by seamen on ships carrying contraband. Speculation in blockade run- ning resulted in some heavy losses to the Chinese and there was tightness of money at the end of the year. After the naval action at Chemulpo on the 9th February some Russian wounded were treated in the Hongkong Hospitals pending removal to Europe and the attention paid to them was duly recognized by the Russian Government. Later 4 Officers and 61 men from a Russian torpedo boat destroyer, who had taken refuge at Weihaiwei, were transferred to Hongkong and arrangements for their maintenance here made in consultation with the Russian Consul,
An attempt was made in the latter half of the year to start the shipment to South Africa via Hongkong of indentured labourers recruited in the Kwang Si and Kwang Tung Provinces on similar conditions as regards terms of engagement and arrangements for transport to those embodied in the Convention for shipment of labourers to South Africa from the Treaty Ports, which was signed in London on the 13th May, 1904. An agreement was made by the Acting Consul General at Canton with the Viceroy of the Two Kwang for despatching to Hongkong labour- ers recruited at Wuchow by the Chinese officials. The class of recruits obtained in this mauner was not satisfactory nor were the numbers obtainable from the two Provinces, in the face of opposition from persons interested in recruiting for other countries, sufficient to justify the maintenance of the depot here. The attempt was therefore abandoned after 1,746 labourers had been despatched.
A rebellion in Kwang Si, which died down towards the end of the year, enabled Hongkong to render a service to China by rigorously maintaining restric- tions on the export of arms and ammunition from the Colony.
The construction of a railway from Canton to the frontier of the territory under British jurisdiction, for which the British and China Corporation bad made a preliminary agreement with the Chinese Government on the 28th March, 1899, formed the subject of discussion in London with the Directors of the Corporation with a view to an arrangement being made for working this railway with one to be constructed from the frontier of the New Territories to the sea at British Kow- loon. The strong feeling of the Government and of the entire commercial con- munity of the Colony as to the importance of the complete undertaking to the prosperity of Hongkong was expressed in the Report on the Blue Book for 1903.
During the year the work of the New Territories Land Court, established in 1900, and subsequently reconstituted, was completed. 354,277 separate lots had been demarcated and their ownership determined at a cost of $143,615. Appro- priate titles to these lots have since been issued.
The rice crops in the New Territories were good, and an increase in the number of houses in nearly all the villages evidenced increased prosperity. The peasants appeared to appreciate the greater security they derived from adequate police protection and showed willingness to assist in unproving road communica-
ations.
Building activity in old Kowloon and Yaunati gives hope that in time the considerable available area on the mainland south of the bills will furnish relief to the congested districts of Victoria. This relief will probably be accelerated when the proposed railway is in hand.
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