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THE NAVY AND THE JUBILEE . CELEBRATION.
In the official correspondence which has been published Vice-Admiral Sir ALEXANDER BULLER details the arrange
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ments he has made for the Diamond Jubilee Celebration in this Colony. "If "the exigencies of the service permit of 'it," the gallant Admiral writes, “I pro- pose that Her Majesty's ships Undaunted, "Humber, Rattler, and Phoenix shall be "present in Hongkong on the 22nd June, 1897, to assist in the celebration of the 60th year of Her Majesty's reign," &c. This long array of noble vessels will, subject to the exigencies of the service, dot the spacious anchorage: a belted cruiser, which is detained here, we believe, through the sickness of a large portion of her crew, a storeship, a small gunboat, part of whose slender crew is absent in the Tweed, and a sloop. This is the mighty force the Vice Admiral deems sufficient to worthily represent the first line of defence at the review to be held in the Colony first acquired during the long and. glorious reign it is proposed to celebrate with all the éclat possible. The Colony and the Vice-Admiral differ materially. His Excellency Sir A. BULLER doubtless pro- poses to divide his ships among the northern ports, where the heat will be less oppressive, and each British community in the Far East may have some naval assistance in honouring the Jubilee. But we cannot admit that the treaty ports of either China or Japan have the same claim as this British colony to the presence of the fleet on a great national ocension like that of the 22nd proximo Even supposing, for the sake of argument, that they had some claim to sup port in this matter, can it be contended that both the flagships should necessarily be absent? The exigencies of the service do not demand their presence north, and one of them, at any rate, might have been sent here for the two days' celebration.
The gallant Admiral makes a great parade of the vessels he has selected to do special honour to his sovereign, but we wonder why, when at such pains to give prominence to the storeship, he did not also mention the Victor Emanuel and the Tamar. The former does at least carry a considerable crew, The fact that the hulks cannot, as the Chinese would say, walk doubtless strained him. But of this we feel very con fident, that the Commodore's ancient but roomy old receiving ship will, as was the case in 1887, take a worthy part in the celebration. Against the decision of Admiral BULLER there is, of course, no appeal, but that is no reason why it should be accepted without remonstrance. Whe ther the movements of the squadron are regulated by the Admiral in command or subject to orders from the Admiralty mat- ters little; the mistake is the same, by whom or from whence originated. The practical desertion of this Colony by Her Majesty's Fleet on the reddest of all red letter days in Queen VICTORIA's unexampled reign will cause great disappointment amongst the Anglo-Saxon community.
The Foochow mint having imported into Shanghai'a large quantity of silver dollars and fractional coinage, Liu Taotai of Shanghai has issued a proclamation notifying the masses of the proposed circplation of the new dollars and warning money changers from charging a discount on them when
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
TAIPINGSHAN AND THE PRÓ-
PERTY MARKET.
The fact of the Taipingshan property hanging over the market would seem to have led to a combination amongst land jobbers and speculators to refrain from buying at the present time either Govern- ment or private land, with a view to knock- ing down prices, forcing the hands of the Government, and ultimately being able to obtain the valuable resumed area for a merely nominal consideration. Most of the privately owned property that has been offered for sale by auction within the last few months has been bought in, the highest offers received not reaching the reserve, and it was a foregone conclusion that in face of the combination that has been formed the Taipingshan lots that were put up for sale the other day would not be disposed of. It is to be hoped, however, that the Government will not allow itself to be frightened or cajoled into sacrificing public property for the enrichment of private in- dividuals. We note that the Hongkong Telegraph accuses the Government of ignorance of "the simplest elements of "business" because it put up the Taiping- shan lots at "absolutely prohibitive prices," the said absolutely prohibitive prices being simply the cost of the land to, the Govern- ment plus the cost of the improvements that have been effected. As the price paid for the resumption was extravagant it is possible the Government may not be able to recoup itself in full for the expenditure, but we fail to see that it can be accused of want of business knowledge for trying to do so.
It is the interests of the public that the Government has to consider, not the interests of the land jobber. It is quite a mistake to suppose that selling public hand at low prices leads to low rents, for as soon as the land has passed into the hands of a private owner the latter can to make all he. naturally tries out of it, irrespective of
what it cost him. Some time ago a piece of land purchased from the Government changed hands again the next day at a profit of over fifty per cent, and the second pur- chaser. when negotiations for a further transfer were entered upon asked a price that would have yielded him a profit of over a hundred per cent. How, then, would the prospective tenants profit by the fact of the land having originally been obtained front the Government at a low rate, seeing that the rents would be calculated to yield a profit on the value of the land as appraised by the actual owner? In the same way, how would the public be benefitted by the Taipingshan lots being disposed of by the Government at. prices which would allow of the purchasers reselling them for double what they gave. for them? The best policy for the Govern- ment will be to hold the land until it receives bona fide applications for it and then sell it in lots to suit the prospective purchasers. The lots put up the other day had not been applied for and they were put up in sizes suitable only for the erection of single houses. Probably the land would be in better demand if offered in lots that would permit of the erection of rows of houses by the purchasers, as this would mean economy in building and a
[May 29, 1897. that they will not be allowed to bleed the public too severely. If it betrays ignorance of the simplest elements of business to ask cost price for the land we trust the Govern- ment will at least not let it go
for very much below its real value.
CROWN RENTS,
In connection with the recent attempt to dispose of a number of the Taipingshan lots it has been objected that the Crown rent mentioned in the conditions of sale was excessive. On many of the most valuable lots in the colony, which were sold years ago, a state of affairs which is no doubt ap the Crown rent payable is merely nominal, preciated by the owners, but whether it is equally to the advantage of the colony is quite another question. For our own part we hold that if the Crown lands had been properly administered the revenue from that source ought to have been suffi cient to cover practically the whole public expenditure, in which case the stamp tax, light dues, and other taxes in restraint of trade would have been unnecessary, and the cost of government would have been equitably distributed over the entire com- munity. Some years ago the Government arrived at the conclusion that it had been parting with the public estate on too easy terms and since then the policy of charging higher Crown rents has been adopted. The amount in the case of the Taiping- shan lots was fixed in pursuance of that policy. The policy may be a de- bateable one, but if so it should be debated on grounds of principle and not be made a stalking horse for the expression of private resentment against the official to whom the duty of carrying out the policy to the happened to fall. In his report p Secretary of State in 1889 on the conditions and prospects of Hongkong Sir WILLIAM Des Vœux, under the heading of "Land 'Sales Receipts," pointed out that a compari- son between the years 1887 and 1888 showed an advance in the aggregate of rents which was proportionately somewhat larger than that in premiums. This, he explained, was due to a change effected in the latter year by which the rent fixed for land. to be leased was made to bear a somewhat larger propor- tion than formerly to the upset price at which leases were offered for competition by "In the belief," His Excellency auction. went on to say, "that we had been unduly "sacrificing the future to the present. by obtaining in premiums so large a share of "the proceeds, I had hoped to carry this change still further; but I was induced to be content at first with a short step "in the desired direction, partly by the "consideration that we are at present. "burthened with a specially heavy charge "for defence and other permanent works, "and partly because the experience of my "advisers suggested a doubt whether there "would not be a loss in premiums out of
proportion to the increase of rents." Excellency went on to refer to the financial difficulties which have arisen elsewhere from the reckless sale of the Crown lands and the use of the proceeds as ordinary revenue, and, he continued, "bearing in mind the
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precarious nature of some important items "of our present receipts, I cannot but think
that it would be worth while, even at "some sacrifice of present advantage, to apportion a larger share of the proceeds to permanent income." Are we now to extent? In the earlier days of the colony, and even up to comparatively recent times, large lots of prospectively valuable land
cash or subsidiary coin exchanged for copper more profitable investment. But it would go back on that policy, and, if so, to what
as the silver used in minting these dollars is of the best syces silver and up to full weight.” N. C. Daily New.
seem in any case more expedient to hold the land until it is applied for and to let the land jobbers understand at the outset
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