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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4TH JUNE, 1881.
was not like the community of this Colony. Here you find a community industrious and temperate, with But it is not merely Chinese who are making money. The Europeans a natural aptitude for commerce. are making money also. And as we watch the transfer of business houses in this Colony, and see the Chinese trader coming closer, day by day, to the manufacturer of England, it is a deeply interesting fact to note, that, with the growing prosperity of the place, there arises a demand for British enterprise, for enterprise that the Chinese mind, with its unrivalled trading instincts and natural commercial skill, cannot at present supply. I refer to our local Companies, founded by Europeans. Is there any one here who can say that in any other Colony there are public Companies more prosperous than the public Companies of Hongkong? Take them all in all, the public Companies founded by the enterprise and ability of our European merchants in this Colony, are at this moment eminently prosperous, Dock Company, Sugar Companies, River Steamer Companies, Insurance Companies, our Gas Company and our local European Bank. What Eastern Company is more flourishing than the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank? Well, the success that has attended these Companies arises, no doubt, in the first instance from the enterprise of those who originated them, but we must not forget the fact that they are worked in the midst of a Chinese community, and that it is impossible to separate the prosperity of our fellow countrymen from the prosperity of the natives of the Colony.
-our
There is one other consideration which I may venture on this occasion to point out to It is this,--that of all the colonies in Her Majesty's Empire, this is, perhaps, the most interesting you. in what may be called the foreign policy that is forced on the Government. We are close to an extra- ordinary Empire. This little Colony has with the Empire of China the most intimate commercial relations. What should be the duty of this Colony to the Chinese? Apart from the general principle of doing justice to all, I have to look to the interests of England and the instructions of Her Majesty on this subject, and there is no doubt, the interests of England are gravely involved in having this Colony maintain friendly relations with China. The Chinese have at the moment, and have had for And what is the consequence? Throughout China now, many years, a great deal of internal content. there is a development of industrial resources and a production of wealth which cannot fail to benefit the British manufacturer and British ship-owner. China is an essentially progressive nation,—cautious and slow, but, I say, eminently progressive. It is not progressive in certain respects, no doubt; for instance, not in that way one sees sometimes depicted in Punch, where children assume to lecture their parents, and where the rising generation expresses contempt for grey hairs. That is a species of progress we do not see in China. His Honour on my right will also, perhaps, have noticed in some of the commer- cial cases before him, that there are some practices sanctioned by our bankruptcy law in which one would be sorry to see China making progress in the sense in which the term is sometimes used in Western nations and the United States. I was much struck the other day on reading some evidence printed by order of the Congress of the United States with respect to the Chinese who had gone from There I find the evidence of the Chairman of the Chamber of Com- Hongkong to San Francisco. merce, a gentleman apparently of large business transactions. He speaks of having transactions I find I amounting to millions of dollars with the Chinese. But what he says is, in effect, this,- can have these business transactions with the Chinese in San Francisco with perfect safety. I take no "bond or security from them. Large sums of money and goods to a considerable amount pass. If "it were a countryman of my own or any other foreigner, I would have to adopt a different system.' In short, he says, "I attribute the commercial prosperity of the Chinese in San Francisco to their great commercial probity." Another leading American merchant of San Francisco, in his evidence, their debts ten times more promptly than our white men; they are clear-headed, says, "The Chinese pay
shrewd, intelligent, and capable of managing business on a large scale; this is especially true of the "hong merchants of Hongkong."
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Those commercial qualities make China a safely progressive country, and make it the duty and interest of a trading Colony like this, and a commercial Empire like England, to be at peace with China. I would push this principle of peace to the extent of not worrying them with advice. They will understand, in course of time, that there is something to be learned, especially in physical science, from Western nations. But, above all, we should avoid, either in dealing with the Queen's subjects in this Colony, or in our relations with the Empire near us, any attempt to force on the Chinese institu- tions which are unsuited to them, and some of which we, in course of time, may, perhaps, discover are unsuited to ourselves. Those are the principles by which I have endeavoured to guide my four years' administration of this Colony, and now, in submitting to you these returns, which correspond with the period of that administration, I can only express the hope, and I do it with every confidence, that, when the next census is taken, all classes in this Colony will be as prosperous as they are to-day.
The motion that the papers be printed was passed.
THE PENAL LAWS AMENDMENT BILL.
The GOVERNOR then moved the introduction of the Penal Laws Amendment Bill. He said it embodied certain recommendations that he had submitted to the Secretary of State, to the effect that the Branding Ordinances, and all Ordinances imposing flogging on the Chinese race exclusively, be repealed; that public flogging and flogging Chinese on the back be abolished, and that no flogging be allowed in Hongkong except for such offences as would entail flogging in England. Her Majesty's Government had authorized the introduction of the Bill. It was read a first time and ordered to be printed. The second reading to be taken at the next meeting of Council.
FINANCE COMMITTEE.
Certain votes that had passed the finance committee were then confirmed. His Excellency adjourned the Council sine die.
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