statements-and-suggestions-regarding-hon — Page 2

therefore attribute the character the lower class of Chinese
around us have now obtained, in a great measure, to causes
incident to the changes in their condition, arising from the
Treaty and other circumstances in the Foreign Trade, which
have had the effect of throwing a vast number out of employ
ment. Previous to the war there were few Opium receiving
ships on the coast of China, and none of them to the North
of Chin -Chew Bay. From these ships and Canton the whole
of Northern China was supplied by their own vessels ; now ,
the Opium trade of the North is carried on in twelve foreign
vessels, stationed near Shanghae and Ningpo, their supplies
being either carried direct from India, or by foreign vessels
from Canton River -besides the whole of the general trade at
the new ports being conducted in the same manner, the
Coasting trade of Chinese junks has been nearly utterly
extinguished .
 31

At Hong Kong, on its first occupation , and until Sir Henry
Pottinger dispossessed some of the Chinese of lands granted
to them by Captain Elliot, the population was very great, and
profitably employed, and the most sanguine expectations were
entertained for the future.
Sir John Davis arrived in May 1844 ; in August following
the Registration Ordinance was passed. This measure,
although distasteful to the Chinese, might have done little
evil had the same inducements to their settling in the colony
been allowed to continue , but unfortunately no other mode of
increasing the revenue could be devised , except taking the
means of existence from the many and giving it to the few,
by the system of monopolies upon every means of employment
to which they could be applied. The Opium Farm , Market
Farm , Fishery Farm , Salt Farm , Ghaut Serang Farm , Stone
Quarry Farm , were all made to contribute to the revenue of
3


the colony, but at the same time to the ruin of its trade and
prospects. To enable readers at a distance to understand the
nature of what in the East is called a farm , we may simply
state that the Opium Farm , for instance , deprived nearly every
shopkeeper of the right he had previously enjoyed to sell
Opium , and conferred it exclusively on one man for a sum of
money. This is the working of the whole system -- it deprived
the people of employment, and consequently of food, and
crime has, as a matter of course , been the natural attendant
upon a starving and not very moral population . The sources
of industry, in fact, have been dried up by the Government :
open them again , and crime will be much diminished . It is
often said that Chinese commit petty crimes for the purpose
of getting into jail that they may be fed. What does this
prove ?


Blades & East, Printers, Abchurch Lane.
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