HONGKONG.
granite, &c., &c. The principal transactions in the tea and silk trade are also controlled by firms residing in Hongkong.
As Hongkong is a free port, it is impossible to give a correct return of imports and exports, but the enormous extent of the trade with which it is connected may be approximately guessed at by the fact that the amount of Foreign and British Tonnage entering and leaving the port annually, averages two millions of tons. To this must be added the immense fleet of native craft of all sizes and forms, by which much of the coasting trade of the Chinese Empire is carried on, and also that of Siam, Cochin China, and the Straits. The number of native vessels-independent of several thousand smaller boats, which visit Hongkong annually-is about 52,000, with a tonnage of nearly 1,300,000, raising the total tonnage, foreign and native, of arrivals and departures in each year, to upwards of two millions and a half. From these figures, some idea of the movement and commercial activity which pervades this great centre of Eastern commerce may be formed.
A Stamp Tax was introduced by the Government (December 1866), and is now in operation.
The annual average rainfall is 71 inches, while the average range of the thermometer is from 43 to 89 for the past five years.
Hongkong pays £20,000 a-year to the Imperial Government as military contribution.
GOVERNORS.
1843. Sir Henry Pottinger, Bart., G.C.B. 1844. Sir John F. Davis, Bart., K.C.B. 1848. Sir George Bonham, Bart., K.C.B.
Revenue. Expenditure.
1848
£27,046
£60,361
1868
85,500
42,426
1866
163,359
196,458
1852. Major-General Jervois (acting).
1867
179,143
152,780
1853. Sir George Bonham, Bart., K.C.B.
1868
236,272
208,503
1854. Sir John Bowring, Knt.
1869
192,409
192,309
1854. Lieut.-Colonel Caine (Lieut.-Governor).
1870
180,620
182,756
1859. Sir Hercules (†. R. Robinson, Knt.
1871
175,962
186,675
1882. William T. Mercer (acting).
1872
192,714
174,681
1884. Sir Hercules Robinson, Knt.
1885. W. T. Mercer (acting).
1866. Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, C.B. 1809. Major-General Whitfeild (Lieut.-Governor.) 1871. Sir Richard G. MacDonnell, K.C.M.G,, C.B. 1872. Sir Arthur Kennedy, K.C.M.G., C.B. ·
Population.
Chinese, &c. Total.
121,907 123,611 117,054
121,985
European and American.
1862 1,604 1872*
4,931 Trade and Commerce.
The commercial intercourse of Hongkong-virtually a part of the commerce of China-is chiefly with Great Britain, the United States, and Germany, Great Britain absorbing about one-half of the total imports and exports. There are no official returns of the value of the imports and exports of the colony from and to all countries, but only mercantile estimates, according to which the former average four, and the latter two, millions sterling.
The extent of the commercial intercourse between Hongkong and the United Kingdom is shown in the following table, which gives the value of the total exports from Hongkong to Great Britain and Ireland, and of the imports of British and Irish produce and manufacture into Hongkong, in each of the five years 1869 to 1873:-
Exports from Hongkong Imports of British Produce!
to Great Britain.
into Hongkong.
Years.
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
£281,932
281,159
367,944
893,764
783,475
2,130,837
3,407,930
2,787,714
2,872,673
3,411,968
The chief article of export from Hongkong to Great Britain in the year 1873 was tea, of the value of £396,184. The British imports into Hongkong consist almost entirely of manufactured textile fabrics, mainly cotton goods, in transit for China.
The subjoined table gives the value of the imports of British and Irish produce and manufactures from 1864 to 1873, exhibiting separately the imports into China
* Inclusive of naval, military, and shipping.
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