Sessional_Paper_1904 — Page 455

347

The principal features to be remarked in the reported Trade of the Port for 1903 are:

In Imports reported:-

Increases in Coal of 14.0-

Decreases in Bulk Petroleum of 25.4

Cotton of 80.8%.

19

Liquid Fuel

of 84.1%

*

Flour of 11.6.

Rice

of 27.1%-

99

99

Case Petroleum of 37.3%.

**

Sugar

of 14.3%

"

General of 7.7°/

Timber

of 14.1%-

The net increase under this head amounts to 21,847 ton s. In Exports, there is an increase reported of 24,252 In Transit Cargo

39

99

502,553

The total reported Import Trade of the Port for 1903 amounted to 24.819 vessels of 10,959,293 tons, carrying 7,392,320 tous of cargo, of which 4,517,370 tons were discharged at Hongkong. This does not include the number, tonnage, or cargo of Junks, or Steam Launches employed in Local Trade.

Similarly, the Export Trade from the Port was represented by 24,966 vessels of 10,944,055 tons, carrying 3,034,683 tous Cargo, and shipping 675,891 tons of Bunker Coal.

Eighty-three thousand three hundred and eighty-four (83,384) Emigrants left Hongkong for various places during the year: of these, 55,681 were carried by British Ships and 27,703 by Foreign Ships; 140,551 were reported as having been brought to Hongkong from places to which they had emigrated, and of these, 107,166 were brought in British Ships and 33,385 by Foreign Ships.

The total Revenue collected by the Harbour Departinent during the year was $285.288.42, being an increase of $18,522.43 on the previous year:—

1. Light Dues,

2. Licences and Internal Revenue,

3. Fees of Court and Office,

..$ 74,960.00

55,475.50 154,852.92

Total,...

$285,288.42

(b.) INDUSTRIES.

The conditions of the Sugar industry in the Colony during 1903 were much more favourable than in the previous year, when a serious collapse in prices was experienced all over the world, rendering profitable working impossible. In con- trast to the wide range of prices during 1902, fluctuations were much more mod- erate, and with values at a low level the consumption of sugar showed a considerable advance, especially in the China market. This steadiness in prices may be at- tributed to the passing of the Brussels Sugar Convention in the Spring of 1902, under which European sugar bounties were abolished, and which came into oper- ation on the 1st September, 1903. The markets in Europe, however, were still overstocked as the result of enormous overproduction in pievious years, so that the full effect of the abolition of bounties has not been felt, but when such stocks have been worked off the sugar trade generally will be relieved of a factor which has hitherto accentuated its necessarily speculative nature, and there is no reason why the local refineries should not share in the benefits likely to result therefrom.

The Cotton Spinning industry during the first half of 1903 was carried on under not unsatisfactory conditions although the recurrence of plague, by its indirect effect on the labour supply, interfered with production for several months From June onwards prices fluctuated violently owing to speculative operations, and at the end of the year had reached a figure which made profitable spinning impossible, prices for yarns not having responded to the advance in the prices of the raw material. The outlook for the industry at the end of 1903 was far from promising, and is not likely to improve until cotton be obtainable at a more reasonable figure. If the valleys of the New Territory could be utilised for cotton plantations, whereby the