970
HONGKONG
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. A sum of $5,000 000 was presented in 1916 and 1917 to His Majesty's Government for war purposes, three out of the five million dollars thus voted being raised by a local loan in the former year. In 1918 a sum of £550,000 was given for the same object, while the special war assessment produced $504,984 in 1917 and $1,052,760 in 1918, all of which was paid over to the Imperial authorities. At the end of 1921 the amount of the Con- solidated loan stood at £1,485,733, against which there was at credit of the Sinking fund £368,403. Against the local loan there were the sums of $664,495 and £89,093 at credit of the Sinking fund.
The rateable value of the whole Colony in 1921-22 was $18,696,660, showing an increase of 7:40 per cent. over the previous year. The rateable value of the Colony shows an increase of 51 85 per cent. from 1912-13 to 1921-22, and of 430.23 per cent. from 1889 to 1919.
The following is a statement of the revenue and expenditure of the Colony for the ten years 1913-22 :-
1913...
---
Expenditure
$8,658,012
1914 ..
1915...
1916...
1917...
1918...
1919...
J
1920...
1921...
1922 (estimated in October)
DESCRIPTION
Revenue
-
$8,512,308
11,007,273
10,756,225
11,786,106
15,149.267
13,833,387
11,079,915
15,058,105
14,090,828
18,665,248
16,252,172
16,5-4,975
17,915,925
14,6 9,672
14,489,594
17,728,132
15,739,652
20,718,720
19,565,500
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 ornaniental 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 was completed in 1917 at a cost of about $2,400,000, making provision for impounding 1,500 million gallons of water.
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, when sufficiently extensive, from the periodical thinnings
The approaches to the port are fairly well lighted. A lighthouse on Green Island lights the western entrance of the harbour. The eastern approach is indicated by a group flashing dioptric light of the first order, visible at a distance of
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