636 HONG-KONG 



to trade. The manufacture of lard is one of the important Chinese industries in the colony, 

 most of the lard being sent to the Philippines, and during 1911 a lard and meat factory 

 was started for the Philippine trade. Since the middle of 1910 a steam trawler has been en- 

 gaged in the fishing industry and has contributed its hauls to the local markets. 



Commerce. Hong- Kong is a free port. The total reported imports during 1911 amounted 

 to. 3,995,793 tons as against 4,292,194 tons in 1910. The exports for 1911 show an in- 

 crease of 71,672 tons or 3 .1 per cent. Transit cargo shows an increase of 66,109 tons or 

 1.6 per cent. Of the more important articles of import, kerosene oil shows a remarkable 

 increase. The imports of raw opium and the trade in compounds of opium have decreased 

 considerably owing to recent legislation. The failure of the southern rice crops in 1911 

 caused a decrease in the rice imports and a corresponding increase in the import of Amer- 

 ican flour, which is used as a substitute for rice and rice-flour. 



The demand for labour in the rubber plantations of Malaya is responsible for the con- 

 tinued increase in the number of Chinese emigrants to the Straits Settlements. The table 

 which follows illustrates the extent of the Hong-Kong immigrant and emigrant trade: 



The total of the shipping entering and clearing at ports in Hong-Kong during the year 



1910 was the highest reached in the history of the colony. The number of vessels engaged 

 in foreign trade was 40,714, of 23,160,256 tons in 1910, and 44,978 of 23,063,108 in 1911, when 

 24.0 per cent by number and 50.7 per cent of the tonnage was British. 



Finance. In 1911 the revenue was 7,497,231 and the expenditure 7,077,177. The 

 amount of the Consolidated Loan (Inscribed Stock Loans of 1893 and 1906) at the end of 



1911 stood at 1,485,732, and, in addition, the advances by the Crown Agents for 

 railway construction amounted to 340,000. The rateable value has doubled since 1900-01 

 and for 1911-12 stood at 11,161,390. The colony pays a military contribution fixed at 

 20 per cent of the revenue; the cost of volunteers is borne entirely by the colony. 



Communications. Hong-Kong has unrivalled steam communication with all parts of the 

 world and there is a weekly European Mail service. During 1910 the Hong-Kong Post Office 

 began to forward parcels to Great Britain and Germany via Shanghai, Dalny and the Trans- 

 Siberian railway. The cash-on-delivery service for parcels exchanged with the United King- 

 dom was adopted on May i, 1909. From Jan i, 1911 the Hong- Kong government was re- 

 lieved by the Imperial government of the charge of the postal agencies in China. 



Extensive resumptions of land at Kowloon Point were effected during 1909 to provide a 

 site for the terminal station of the Kowloon-Canton Railway. The British section of this 

 railway, 21.78 miles in length and of 4' 8J" gauge, was opened on October I, 1910, by Sir 

 Henry May. A two-foot gauge branch from Fan Ling to Sha Tau Kok, a distance of 7} 

 miles, was commenced in May 1911, and a length of 6} miles of this branch was opened for 

 traffic on December 2ist. The Chinese section of the railway was opened, and through 

 traffic between Kowloon and Canton established on October 4, 1911. 



Government. Sir Frederick Lugard, who was appointed Governor in July 1907, left 

 the colony in March 1912, to become Governor of Nigeria. He was succeeded by Sir 

 Francis Henry May, K.C.M.G., formerly Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner 

 for the Western Pacific, who had previously been acting Governor. 



In accordance with the resolutions of the International Opium Conference which 

 met in Shanghai in February 1909, the opium ordinances have been amended and 

 consolidated, and additional restrictions and safeguards have been imposed in respect 

 of morphine, compounds of opium and cocaine. Twenty-six opium divans were closed 

 in 1909, and all that remained both in the island of Hong-Kong and the New Territories 

 were closed in IQIO. A grant of qooo was made to the colony by the Imperial Govern- 

 ment for the year IQIO on account of the loss of opium revenue, and a grant of 12,000 

 for the same purpose for the year 1911-12. In order to replace the revenue lost on 

 opium, a law was passed by the Legislative Council on September 17, 1909, imposing 

 duties on intoxicating liquors consumed in the colony. The 34 ordinances passed in 

 IQIO were chiefly concerned with the consolidation of the ordinances relating to the 

 New Territories, copyright, crown suits, lepers, midwives, oaths and the volunteer 



