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:
Year
Ocean-going tonnage
Other than ocean-going
Total
1919
14,467,847
21,147,322
35,615,169
1924 27,874,830
28,856,247
56,731,077
1929
28,285,741
18,900,440
47,186,181
1934
28,905,526
13,008,496
41,914,022
1939
22,148,228
8,749,720
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 exported, but the following table gives the total values for the same years, as far as possible:
Year
Imports
Exports
Total
1919
(statistics not available)
1924
607,625,078 536,208,792 1,143,833,870
1929
(statistics not available)
1934
415,918,522 325,104,653 741,023,175
1939
594, 199,224
533,385,203 1,127,584,427
Note.
18.
The value of the dollar fluctuated considerably in this period.
There has been a steady decline in the volume of the traffio of the Part 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 Enelioration of the existing position and for the improvement of the trade of the Colony".
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20.
This Commission reported in 1935. It was not able to make any 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 there- fore 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.
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