Directory_and_Chronicle_1917 — Page 1126

HONGKONG

1021

The Government is administered by a Governor, aided by an Executive Council 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, the Attorney-General, the Treasurer, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the Director of Public Works, the Harbour Master, the Captain Superintendent 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 1916 was estimated in October of that year to amount to $13,274,000, or $1,864,990 more than the original estimate. This excess was largely accounted for by estimated increases under the following heads: Liquor duties $150,000, Opium monopoly $1,179,000, premia on new leases $150,000 and by a yield of $200,000 from the duty on tobacco. The expenditure for 1916 was expected, in October, to fall short of the original estimate of $11,882,774 by a sum of $65,104. At the end of 1916 it was estimated that there would be a balance of assets over liabilities of $1,003,643. The estimated revenue for 1917 is $13,242,000 and the estimated expenditure $12,396,155, the expenditure being approximately $8,605,105 for the Public Service, inclusive of $1,545,400 for public works extraordinary, and a little over $3,000,000 for the defence of the Colony and other expenses in connection with the war, this sum, of course, comprising the contribution to the Imperial Government which is estimated to be $2,701,760. The Colony has a small public debt. A loan of £200,000 was 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. In 1906 the Governinent raised a loan of £1,100,000 in London at an average price of £99 Is. per cent., bearing interest at the rate of 3 per cent. This money was originally lent to the Chinese Government for the purpose of redeeming the Canton- Hankow railway concession from the various persons who had acquired interests in it from the original American concessionaires. The total cost of the loan, including expenses of issue, was £1,143,933. It has now been fully repaid and expended on railway construction within the Colony.

The rateable value of the whole Colony in 1916 was $14,282,186, showing a decrease of 003 per cent. over the previous year. The rateable value of the Colony shows an increase of 33 27 per cent. in the decade 1907-16.

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 streams, 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 sea 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-nei Chung reservoir, completed in 1899, has a capacity of twenty-seven million gallons. A bye- wash reservoir of about thirty million gallons capacity, situated immediately below the overflow of the Tytam reservoir, was completed in 1903, and a dam at Tytam Tuk to impound 194 million gallons was completed in 1909. A further extension of these waterworks is now in progress, making provision for impounding 1,500 million gallons of water. The estimated cost of this project is $2,400,000.

The natural productions of the Colony are few and unimportant. There is little and suitable for tillage, and nothing is grown but a little rice and some vegetables near