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HONGKONG
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The Government is administered by a Governor, aided by an Executive Councit of five officials and two unofficials. The Legislative Council is presided over by the Governor, and is composed of the Officer Commanding the Troops, the Colonial Secretary (who also holds the office of Registrar-General), the Attorney-General, the Treasurer, the Director of Public Works, the Harbour Master, the Captain Superin- tendent of Police, and six unofficial members, one of whom is elected by the Chamber of Commerce and another by the Justices of the Peace. The other four, two of whom are Chinese, but British subjects, are appointed by the Government.
FINANCES.
The revenue for 1901 was $4,213,893, being an increase of $11,306 on the revenue of the previous year, and the ordinary expenditure was 84,111,772. The Colony has a small public debt, a loan of £200,000 having been contracted in 1886. Another loan of £200,000 was contracted in 1893, and in 1894 the unredeemed balance of the first loan was converted from 4 per cent. debentures into 3 inscribed stock, thus bringing it into uniformity with the loan raised in 1893. The public debt now stands at £341,800, repayment of which is provided for by a sinking fund, which has £20,363 12s. 8d. to credit.
The annual rateable value for 1902-3 of the city of Victoria was $6,945,115, that of Kowloon (not including the New Territory) $807,775, and that of the various villages on Hong Island $220,453 and the Hill District 8193,990.
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DESCRIPTION
The island of Hongkong is about 11 miles long and from 2 to 5 miles broad; its circum- ference is about 27 miles. It consists of a broken ridge of lofty hills, with few valleys of any extent and scarcely any ground available for cultivation. The only valleys worthy of the name are those of Wong-nai Chung and Little Hongkong, both of which are remark- ably beautiful and well wooded, being in fact the only parts where any considerable arborescent vegetation was formerly to be found. The island is well watered by numerous streaps, many of which are perennial. The city of Victoria and suburbs are supplied with water from the Pokfolum, Tytam, and Wong-nai Chung reservoirs.. The first-named, constructed in 1866-69, has a storage capacity of sixty-eight million gallons, while the Tytam reservoir, constructed in 1883-88, and extended in 1896, has an area of about 29 acres and a storage capacity of about three hundred and ninety million gallons. From the Tytam reservoir the water is conveyed into town by means of a tunnel a mile and one-third in length and a conduit along the hillside some 400 feet above the sex level and nearly four miles in length, on which a fine road-called the Bowen Road--has been formed, which commands the most charming views of the city and the eastern district, and is a favourite resort of pedestrians In many parts the conduit is carried over the ravines and rocks by ornamental stone bridges, one of which, above Wanchai, has twenty-three arches. The Wong-wai Chung reservoir, completed in 1899, has a capacity of twenty-seven million gallons.
The natural productions of the Colony are few and unimportant. There is little land suitable for tillage, and nothing is grown but a little rice and some vegetables near the outlying villages.
There are large granite quarries, both on the island and in Kowloon, and there is a small export of this stone. A bed of fire clay exists at Deep Water Bay, and bricks and earthenware pipes are manufactured from it. The forests now growing up and in course of being planted may one day become a source of
revenue.
The approaches to the port are fairly well lighted. A lighthouse on Green Island lights the western entrance of the harbour, the light being a fixed dioptric one- of the fourth order, visible at a distance of fourteen miles, about to be changed for a better one; and the eastern approach is indicated by a group flashing dioptric light of the first order, visible at a distance of twenty-two miles, erected on Waglan Island, while a smaller light on Cape Collinson assists navigators to make the Ly-ee-mun Pass. on Gap Rock, about thirty miles to the south, was completed and first displayed its beacon on the 1st April, 1892; it is connected with the port by a cable, and the approach of vessels is signalled from it to the Post Office.
having an area of ten square miles, and, with its diversified scenery and varied shipping, The harbour of Hongkong is one of the finest and most beautiful in the world, presents an animated and imposing spectacle. It consists of the sheet of water between destitute of foliage, but the island slopes are gradually becoming clothed with young the island and the mainland, and is enclosed on all sides by lofty hills, formerly forests, the result of the afforestation scheme of the Government. The city of Victoria is magnificently situated, the houses, many of them large and handsome, rising, tier upon tier, from the water's edge to a height of over four hundred feet on the face of the Peak,
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