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Mercantile Marine, Registrar of Shipping, Principal Examiner of Masters and Mates, Director of Air Services, Marine Magistrate and a member of the Harbour Advisory Committee.
10. Work in the Harbour, such as the reclamation of land from the water- way, piers for Government use, and dredging, etc., have been executed by the Department of Public Works, but beyond the provision of mooring buoys, naviga- tional lights for ships, and an amount of dredging, not much money has been spent by the Government on accommodation in the nature of piers, etc., for shipping and for goods imported and exported, that having been left to private enterprise, the Government merely leasing the necessary land.
11. HARBOUR ADVISORY BOARD AND COMMITTEE. In the year 1927, a sug- gestion that an Advisory Body, to be called the "Hong Kong Harbour Board", should be established, was approved by the Governor. The idea apparently originated with the Harbour Master who reported that all great Ports of the size of Hong Kong had such Boards of one sort or another and, as he had been in Colombo, he seemed to think that the system there was the ideal one. It was not until 1929 that the "Hong Kong Harbour Board" was actually formed and it con- sisted of the Harbour Master, as Chairman, with seven Government officials as well as four members recommended by the General Chamber of Commerce and two nominated by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, together with representatives of the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine, respectively.
12. The duties of this Board were to advise the Government in any matter concerning the Harbour as to which the advice of the Board might be sought by the Governor.
13. It is interesting to note that when the General Chamber of Commerce was consulted before the appointment of the Board, they stated at first sight it appeared that the appointment of such a Body without executive powers would lead to slight, if any, improvement upon the then existing organization as regards the Harbour. Later the Chamber expressed themselves as apprehensive that the formation of such a Harbour Board would eventually lead to increased expenses being placed on shipping. They also stated they were generally in favour of the establishment of a Harbour Board provided that the ultimate aim of Government was to form a Body which would eventually be given limited authority with moder- ately wide terms of reference in respect of general questions of policy in Harbour development.
14. Later the idea grew that a smaller and more flexible Body would be desirable, and in 1931 the Board was dissolved and a small "Harbour Advisory Committee was substituted, consisting of four Government officials, three unofficial members who were British subjects and one of whom was of Chinese nationality, and a Naval officer. The Colonial Secretary acted as Chairman of this Committee. From time to time various matters were referred to the first Advisory Board and subsequently to the Advisory Committee.
15. It seems that the Harbour Advisory Committee is still in existence in name, but no meeting has been held for about two years. It cannot therefore be said to have a marked influence on the policy of the Port. I will, however, refer to it later in this Report.
16. EXTENT OF THE PORT'S TRADE. The extent of the trade of the Port may be judged by the amount of shipping entering and leaving the Harbour. The following table gives the shipping tonnage at five-yearly intervals from the year
1919 :-
Ocean-going tonnage. Other than ocean-going.
Year.
1919
14,467,847
1924
27,874,830
1929
28.285,741
1934
28,905,526
1939
22,148,228
21,147,322
28,856,247
18,900,440
13,008,496
8,749,720
Total.
35,615,169
56,731,077
47,186,181
41,914,022
30,897,948
The year 1924 shown above happens to be the peak year of the Port's tonnage.
17. There is no record kept of the weight of all articles imported and export- ed, but the following table gives the total values for the same years, as far as possible.
Exports.
$
Total.
$
Year.
Imports. $
1919
(statistics not available)
1924
607,625,078
536,208,792
1,143,833,870
1929
(statistics not available)
1934
415,918,522
325,104,653
1939
594,199,224
533,385,203
741;023,175 1,127,584,427
Note:-The value of the dollar fluctuated considerably in this period.
18. There has been a steady decline in the volume of the traffic of the Port since the year 1924. The cause for the recent decline is of course to be found in the interference with trade resulting from the war between China and Japan as well as the European war.
19. A decline had, however, begun before those causes operated, and there was such cause for anxiety that in 1934 the then Governor appointed a Commission "to enquire into the causes and effects of the present trade depression in Hong Kong and make recommendations for the amelioration of the existing position and for the improvement of the trade of the Colony'.
It was not able to make any
20. This Commission reported in 1935. important recommendations for bettering the position, but it touched the root of the matter when it said "The world wide depression, a reaction from the post-war boom, was bound to touch China and therefore Hong Kong
Hong Kong handles about one quarter of China's coastwise and foreign trade. She suffers, therefore, not only from the effect of the world depression on China, in which respect there is a decreased demand for China's products and labour and therefore a decreased purchasing power for imports, but also from other factors." In other words, the then depression in Hong Kong's trade was due mostly, if not entirely, to causes outside its own control.
21. NATURE OF THE PORT'S TRADE.-Some Ports owe their origin to raw materials found in the vicinity for which there is an export demand, or to factories in the neighbourhood whose products must be exported. Other Ports are centres of big populations which have largely to be supplied with food, etc., by sea. Others perform a useful function in connexion with entrepôt or transhipment trade.
22. In the case of Hong Kong its production of raw materials is negligible, while it produces only a small fraction of the foodstuffs it consumes.
There are industries established in Hong Kong such as shipbuilding and ship repairing, sugar refining, brewing, knitting and weaving, and the manufacture of rope, ginger, aerated waters, bricks, cement and tiles, etc.
23. The principal commodities imported into Hong Kong are foodstuffs, piece- goods and textiles, oils and fats, metals, Chinese medicines, fuels, live animals, vehicles and machinery and engines; while the chief exports consist of foodstuffs and provisions, treasure, oils and fats, metals, wearing apparel, Chinese medicines, minerals and ores and vehicles.
24. The normal trade of Hong Kong falls into the following broad categories:-
(a) Imports for consumption in Hong Kong and raw materials for certain
industries, and exports of Hong Kong origin.
(b) Chinese external trade passing through Hong Kong, i.e. Chinese goods re-exported to non-Chinese countries and non-Chinese goods re- exported to China.
(c) Chinese coastal trade, i.e. goods imported from one part of China and
re-exported to another.
(d) Non-Chinese entrepôt trade, i.e. goods imported from સ non-Chinese
country and re-exported to another non-Chinese country.
1916
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