677890-1882-Governor-s-Address-at-Legislative-Council-Meeting-7th-February-1882- — Page 3

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11TH FEBRUARY, 1882.

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that increase are of importance in considering the question of the prosperity of the Colony. I find, for instance, that the items for licenses and fees of junks, which amounted in 1880 to $18,807, increased in 1881 to $19,839. Now, between the years 1880 and 1881, there was also an increase in the foreign shipping, and the foreign steamers purchased by the Chinese. The junk trade has to compete with the coasting steamers, and when we find that the trade of the coasting steamers, and the general foreign shipping of the Colony increasing at the same time with an increase in the junk trade, we have a combination which shows the prosperous state of the commerce of this Colony. With regard to the foreign shipping, I have not yet before me the final returns, but as you are aware, the revenue from the light dues furnishes a certain criterion for the increase or diminution of the foreign shipping trade. I find that the increase on light dues of foreign shipping amounts to $2,660. Well, that seems in itself a small sum, but when you remember that the light dues only amount to one cent. per ton, upon the foreign shipping, the small apparent increase means an increase of 266,000 tons on foreign shipping in one year in the harbour. I believe that the tonnage of foreign shipping cleared and entered in Hongkong in 1881 exceeded 8,800,000. There are a few other iteins, which, though apparently small, undoubtedly indicate mercantile prosperity; those are the increase of our revenues from cargo boats and cargo boats' certificates, from the shipping of sailors, and from the examinations of masters and engineers, upon all of which items there is an increase in the past year.

Under the head of miscellaneous receipts, I find a considerable increase in the revenue from the storage of gunpowder and kerosine. The total amount of revenue under the head of miscellaneous items in 1880, was $6,695, whereas in 1881, it was $18,294. The taxation of the Colony is at the present moment at precisely the same figure as it was when I first became Governor of Hongkong in 1877, and the increase of revenue that has gone on is therefore an increase of revenne dependent upon the progress and prosperity of the Colony.

EXPENDITURE

I have to ask your attention to the expenditure of the Colony. The expenditure in 1880 amounted to $885,204, whereas in 1881 the amount was somewhat larger, viz., $895,985. The difference, you will observe, between the revenue collected in 1881 and the expenditure of that year is about $400,000,-a respectable sum to have gained on the Treasury transactions of the past year, without new taxes, and whilst maintaining the Establishments and services in a state of efficiency.

WORKS AND BUILDINGS.

I find that the expenditure on works and buildings in 1881 amounted to $59,781, as compared with $50,568 in the preceding year, showing an increase of $9,000. Under the head of what are called miscellaneous services, there was an increase last year, of $11,000. Now, with respect to works and buildings, the items showing an increase consist of repairs to buildings, amounting to $14,098, as compared with $11,923 in the preceding year. One large cause of increase is the typhoon breakwater in Causeway Bay, the expenditure upon which is $30,095. The work is proceding, and will be so far completed before the next typhoon season, as to furnish at that time, if we should have a typhoon, a substantial protection to the junk population. There has been a slight increase in the item of street lamps, which amounts to $21,418. There is an increase in the telegraph service from $2,900 to $5,600. As you are aware, our telegraphic communications are now connected with all the Police Stations in the Colony. Two small submarine lines have been laid across the harbour, and you are also no doubt aware that we are substituting iron posts in the place of the ordinary wooden poles. Amongst the other miscellaneous items which account for this increase I find the item of compensation to Mr. COUGHTRIE of $1,500. That compensation, I think, was claimed in May, 1878, at all events a consider able time ago, by Mr. COUGHTRIE, for an injury which he stated was done to his dwelling house by the bursting of a drain, and he held the Survery Dapartinent responsible for it. He applied for $1,500, and after a very long inquiry into the matter, I am happy to say that the EARL OF KIMBERLEY sanctioned the claim, and that the sum of $1,500 has been paid to him. As to the ordinary services of the Colony, such as the provision on an efficient Police Force, providing a proper staff for the Harbour Departinent, and doing what is required for the other establishments in the Colony, I have no hesitation in saying that the Government has not been in any way backward; I think my honourable friend on my left, the head of the Police Force, will bear me out in saying that any expenditure required for that force has never been refused by the Executive, and the same, I think, will be said by the gentlemen at the head of the Harbour Department. As to our roads, streets, and bridges, I am on the whole perfectly satisfied with the state they are in. I have over and over again intimated to Mr. PRICE and to Mr. BOWDLER that any assistance required for that department, I am prepared to sanction; and I believe the condi- tion of our streets and roads, so far from being unsatisfactory, is highly creditable to the Survey Depart- ment. In 1881 I laid out $12,000 on tree planting, and a considerable increase on the annual sum ($700) spent on that work a few years ago. The good results we all observe from the tree-planting, justify this increased expenditure. On the whole, gentlemen, I think you have no reason to be dissatisfied with the expenditure you have voted, and with the mode in which it has been laid out. There are certain works, which I was anxious to see carried out several years ago, with which at that time I remember the Sur- veyor General expressed his inability to deal until the repairs to the Praya Wall had been completed.