CO129-448 - Governor Sir May - 1918 [4-6] — Page 25

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chiefly owing to the ill health of the Head of the Depart-

ment which finally obliged him to go on leave to England in

May.

Hie successor (the present writer) was during the

first few months of his tenure too oooupled with other matteri

to give much attention to the statistical branch of the

Department and it was finally decided that the staff should

abandon all attempt to cope with the figures for the first

half of 1917 and should concentrate on the organisation of

a sound working basis during the second half year as a pre-

paration for 1918. To this end the clerical staff was

largely increased and additional office-accommodation was

requisitioned, while work was begun on the preparation of

a list of Statistical Headings covering all the important

items in the trade of the Port. The Department is much

indebted in this matter to the courtesy of Mr. A. H. Harris,

Commissioner of the Chinese Maritime Customs, who was good

enough to provide for its use copies of the Statisticsl

Classifications used by his own Service. The draft of the

new list was on completion submitted to the Hongkong Goneral

Chamber of Commerce who gave much valuable advice. The list

as finally revised was printed and published in December,

It will be observed that there are certain notable

omissions from the List, namely, Livestock, Liquors, Tobacco

and Opium. The reason for these omissions is that the

necessary information is obtainable through other channels,

The traffic in livestock is controlled by the Public Health

& Buildings Ordinance 1903, which is administered by the

Sanitary Department: that in Liquor, Tobacco and Opium is

controlled and recorded under the Ordinances which bear their

names. Figures for all these will be appended to any annual

Returns of Trade that are published.

5.

No statistics can be compiled for goode imported

under the General Import Llocnoes mentioned in paragraph 2.

Rince the only data available are those in the ships' mani-

Tests, which are quite inadequate for the purpo86,

1917

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