Formerly an integral part of China, the island was first ceded to Great Britain in 1841, and the cession was confirmed by the treaty of Nanking in 1842, the charter bearing date 5th April 1843. Kau-lung, temporarily occupied for several years as a military sanatarium, was ceded by a treaty contracted by Lord Elgin in 1861. The colony is under a governor, and an executive council comprising the colonial secretary, the commander of the troops, the attorney-general, and the auditor-general. The legislative council, presided over by the governor, is composed of all these officials (except the commander), with the addition of four unofficial members, nominated by the crown on the recommendation of the governor. The occupation of Hong-Kong was effected at a considerable outlay, but the parliamentary vote on its behalf was reduced from £50,000 in 1845 to £9200 in 1853, and since 1855 the colony has paid its local establishments. In 1868 it extinguished its debt, which had dwindled to £15,625, and it now pays £20,000 a year as military contribution to the imperial exchequer.
The capital, situated at the north-west extremity of the island, is laid out in fine wide streets and terraces. The buildings, mostly of stone and brick, are greatly superior to those of a Chinese city. The merchants’ houses are elegant and spacious, with broad verandahs and tasteful gardens. Including the Chinese town, Victoria extends for 3 miles along the bay, towards which it slopes from the base of the hills. It is lighted with gas, and supplied with water from the Pokovfulun reservoir, which impounds 74 million gallons. The main thoroughfare is protected by a massive sea-wall, and the appearance of the town has been greatly improved by the construction of public gardens. Besides several handsome Government buildings, Victoria has a large exchange, a cathedral and bishop’s palace, several good hospitals, extensive barracks, and a few higher class schools. A city hall with library and museum was opened in 1876, and the public works completed in that year (the extension of public gardens, construction of many miles of mountain path, and improvement of drainage) involving an outlay of £30,867. The educational provision of the Government in 1876 comprised 54 schools, with an attendance of 3111 pupils, and of these 16 with 1816 pupils were native schools, in which the language is Chinese. At the central school (556 pupils in 1876) there is a Chinese class for Europeans, as there is also in several of the missionary and “grant-in-aid” schools. Hong-Kong publishes, in addition to 5 English newspapers (2 daily), 1 in Chinese every second day and a Portuguese weekly. The streets are guarded by a strong force of Indian sepoys, and the natives are not allowed to go abroad after 8 o’clock at night without a pass; but the general character of the town is orderly, as is attested by the police returns, from which it appears that only 68 persons were convicted before the superior courts in 1875. The common mode of street conveyance is by chairs, which are carried by coolies, while the passage across to Kau-lung is usually effected in sampans or pull-away boats. Victoria has a few slight industries, including sugar-refining, rum-distilling, and ice-making. In 1877 the introduction of a steam laundry broke the monopoly of the dhoby. There are upwards of 500 Chinese hongs of a superior class belonging to ship compradores and to dealers in fancy goods, china ware, articles in gold and silver, opium and other drugs, rice, piece goods, tea, &c.
Although formerly the central point of the great European Chinese trade and still a thriving seat of commerce, Hong-Kong owes its present importance chiefly to its financial prominence as the headquarters of the banking interest, and to its magnificent harbour, which makes it both the station of the British fleet and an entrepôt for the custom trade of all nations. In 1877 it was the residence of 14 foreign consuls, and had 10 large banking-houses. It still imports opium more largely than any other port, and among other articles of which it is the centre of trade are sugar, flour, salt, china ware, nut-oil, amber, cotton, sandalwood, ivory, betel, livestock, granite, and ship supplies. The principal transactions in tea and silk are controlled by firms residing in Hong-Kong. As it is a free port there are no exact returns of trade, but in 1877 the imports from Great Britain alone amounted to £3,645,068 and the exports thither to £1,895,310. Chief of these exports was tea, the value of which in 1876 was £839,568. In the same year the opium imported amounted to 96,985 piculs, as compared with 69,851 piculs received at all the other treaty ports. Of 3424 chests of Bengal opium imported in February 1876, 1500 passed into the hands of local consumers and 1924 were exported; at the same date there were 4800 chests in stock as compared with 1374 at Shanghai. There is an enormous passenger traffic: between the years 1871 and 1876 there have passed through the port no fewer than 15,000 Chinese coolies, of whom the majority have gone to the United States. In the year 1876 Queensland drafted hence as many as 8325 emigrants. Large steamers go and come almost daily, the ports in regular communication with Hong-Kong including Bombay, Calcutta, Singapore, Canton, San Francisco, Yokohama, and (since 1875) Sydney. The aggregate shipping that entered the port in 1878 amounted to 3,900,891 tons. Of this 45·2 per cent. were junks, 43·7 steamers, and 11·1 European and American built sailing vessels. Exclusive of native craft there entered and cleared (1876) 4,359,616 tons, of which 3,150,952 were in British and 1,208,664 in foreign vessels. The revenue in 1878, derived from land rents, fines, licences to sell opium, and spirits, &c., amounted to £197,424, the expenditure to £189,695; there is usually a surplus of revenue. At the 31st January 1877 the bank-notes in circulation were stated at $3,536,380, and the specie in reserve at $1,295,000. Hong-Kong has a dollar of its own coining (4s. 2d.), but its mint, which entailed a cost of £9,000 a year, has ceased to operate. Other coins in circulation are the Mexican dollar, Chinese taels and cash, the American trade dollar, and Japanese silver yen. A movement is at present on foot to have the last two coins placed on an equality with the Mexican dollar. The standard of value is 1000 Mexican dollars to 717 taels by weight. In spite of the great increase in recent years of the direct trade with the various treaty ports, the progress of Hong-Kong has been steady, and there is every probability of its maintaining its peculiar position of influence in the Chinese trade. In 1871 it was placed in telegraphic communication with England, and in its recent legislative action it has shown vitality and enterprise. The gambling practices which prevailed here, as they still do in many Chinese towns, have been vigorously suppressed, and the difficulties arising from the sudden development of the coolie emigration have been overcome. The presence of Chinese revenue cruisers in Hong-Kong waters has led (February 1880) to a storm of opposition on the part of resident British merchants, who declare that this amounts to a blockade of the island; but British officials uphold the action of China as a necessary check upon the opium and salt smuggling.
Besides the Government papers and The Hong-Kong Almanac and Directory, see A Letter from Hong-Kong, descriptive of that Colony, by a Resident, 2d ed., Lond., 1845; Bentham, Flora Hongkongensis, Lond., 1861; Beach, Visit of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh to Hong-Kong in 1869, Hong-Kong, 1869; J. Legge, “The Colony of Hong-Kong,” in The China Review (edited by Dennys), 1872.
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