60
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
repairing and docking of ships. The general trade depression con- tinued in 1906, when there were heavy losses through the fall in price of Indian yarn, while shares in local undertakings much depreciated in value. It was accentuated towards the end of 1907 by world-wide restriction of commerce following upon a financial crisis in America, Shipping in particular suffered and the same trouble continued in 1908. Thereafter a gradual improvement began both in trade and in shipping, and this was at once reflected in an improved collection of revenue in Hong Kong.
The second set-back was during the years of world-wide dis organization which followed the conclusion of the Great War. The trade depression of that time was by no means confined to Hong Kong, but it was aggravated here by the disturbed state of the neighbouring province of Kuang-tung and of China generally. Eventually, however, this very state of chaos and anarchy in China reacted beneficially upon the revenues of Hong Kong, because the Chinese realized that this Colony, afforded a safe refuge from the storm and they, therefore, became anxious in increasing numbers to find some foothold within it. There followed a land-boom in Hong Kong and Kowloon: and the recent statistics of the revenue of this Colony from land-sales are so significant that I give them in full:
1919 revenue from land-sales
1920
do.
1921
do.
1922
do.
1923
do.
1924
do.
1925
do.
1926
do.
$ 263,960
556,349
1,634,098
2,721,804
3,488,797
1,909,236
570,243
286,342
We were, therefore, last year back again at the pre-boom figures of 1919: but at the height of the boom, during 1923, the Colony derived more money from land sales alone than the amount of its total annual revenue prior to the beginning of this century.
The land-boom was already on the decline, when Bolshevik intrigue launched against this Colony the anti-British boycott which began in June, 1925. It is interesting in retrospect to observe how little injury that boycott did to Hong Kong. In one way it even did good, for it united the Chinese and European communities of this Colony, as they had never been united before, in a fixed determination to destroy the menace of Bolshevism and to root out communism from among us I venture to believe that the same determination now animates the Government of the Kuangtung Province and I hope, therefore, that it may not be long before the old spirit of friendship and co- operation will again prevail between Hong Kong and Canton to our mutual advantage.
In considering the stability of our financial position it is, of course, necessary to examine the principal sources from which our
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